Why does free food taste so good?  Scarfing down those yummy tidbit samples roaming the aisles of Costco.  After a hospital visit, I’m offered complimentary chow for a week by our insurance provider.  Really?  Freebies?  That’s for me!  After patiently (no pun intended) waiting a few days, a big box, filled with pre-packaged frozen meals, lands on our front doorstep.  Carefully tossing out the dry ice, I pop all 10 meals into our refrigerator for daily consumption.  Fortunately or not, my wife wants no part of these tasty morsels.

I scarf down one a day for a week and a half.  Until all are consumed, down to the last crumb.  How are they?  Portions are for someone without an appetite, while the taste is truly forgettable, I hope.  But still, they’re free.  And what else counts?  No comment.

Reading Isaiah 55, you’ll discover that God offers free food and drink.  Isaiah 55: 1–‘Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!  Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.’  See?  Told you so.

Water, bread (v.2), milk, and wine are all precious commodities in parched desert lands.  Would tear a huge chunk out of your meager income to provide these basics, which often are not available due to drought, war, or countless other dangers.  But now for free?  Without rationing?  What?  Must be some snake oil salesman standing in the wings.  A magician performing tricks to get money out of us with nothing to show except our emptied wallets.

But no.  Not with the Lord.  His salvation, His love is not for sale.  He graciously offers them to us for free, even though it costs Him everything when His only Son Jesus dies on the cross.  He pays it all.  All we need to do is believe and accept His gift thankfully and wholeheartedly.  All in.  No turning back.  To be His and His alone.  Good deal, huh?  Nothing better.

But have you taken Jesus into your heart?  Again, you can’t earn a relationship with God.  Can’t do enough good deeds to balance off what you’re ashamed to admit you’ve done or said.  No leveling sin’s scales, hoping beyond hope that our good outweighs the bad.  None needed.  He does it all.  He has.  Still does.  And will… for you and me.

Time to trust Him.  While there’s still time.  So grab hold of Jesus’ hand which He’s extending to you.  Good.  Then, enjoy all the blessings He wants you to have.  All of them.  Mainly He gives Himself.  Why not ponder that this week as tomorrow we begin the Advent season.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for giving yourself for me.   Amen.