Kindness

Today as I was reading I was struck by God's kindness. That is a strange way to put it but it is how it was. I have considered God's mercy and grace but rarely do I think very simply about His kindness. This morning, the fact that God is kind jumped out at me, suddenly, and quite unexpectedly.

When grace touches my life, and this is a daily occurrence, I am also a recipient of God's kindness. Let us think for just a minute about what kindness looks like. If we put a human face to it, how does kindness find us? There will be some ways we all experience kindness that will look similar. There will be other ways that it is unique to who we are and the circumstances we are in.

Maybe kindness catches us is in the the elderly gentleman as he offers his shopping cart to us and doesn't want the coin in return. Maybe the person in the car ahead of ours in the drive-thru pays for our coffee or perhaps a teen holds the door open for us at the mall.  Or maybe it comes through a friend's encouraging email or post on our facebook wall. These kindnesses are neither expected nor deserved. These kindnesses are not in exchange for us being kind first. These kindnesses are a gift.

Now let's magnify this type of kindness by a number greater than we even know. That kind of kind is God's.