The newcomer God has longed for
He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world,
To be holy and blameless before him in love. Ephesians 1:4
Read Matthew 20:8—16
I take it that every time I come to God and hold out my hands and receive from him, I come, as it were, fresh and new. I am forever the newcomer. I am not able to present to God my own past record because I rely entirely and only on his grace. So I am, for all the years that I have known him, the perpetual newcomer. Yet I am amazed, whenever I think about it, that God receives me as though I have been with him forever, as though I had never left, as though I must have always been dutifully serving my Father. It is as though God has always wanted me to be his, and I remember now that he has.
Father, at the end of the day I come to you. I have not devoted every hour to you. So much of today’s time I have used as though it was all mine to keep. Yet I turn to you at last and you welcome me. I come by faith. I trust Jesus Christ as my Saviour. You welcome me. You welcome me as though I had been dutiful. As though I had been fully devoted. I hold out my hands and you fill them. You look upon me as though you are pleased with me. And I find that I was never made to be wayward, never made to live my life away from you. I was made to take pleasure in your purpose. It is a fine way to come in from my day’s activity and to find that you are the one delighted to have me, just, really, delighted!