Family meal time is one of my favorites. With busy schedules pulling you in so many different directions, nothing beats sitting down and reconnecting with the people you love every day. As we often do, we were playing a little question/answer game as we sat around the table. The question of the night was: “What is your favorite thing about each person in this room?” Wow. Talk about an interesting question… I loved hearing the responses, but the one that really stuck with me was offered by Tyler when I asked him what his favorite thing was about his Mom. Without a second of hesitation, he said, “She makes hard things seem easy.”
I imagine that the Ethiopian eunuch we read about in Acts 8:26-40 would have had the same compliment to give Philip.
29 The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” 30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. 31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
32 This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.” 34 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” 35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
After the eunuch obeyed the Gospel, scripture tells us that he never saw Philip again, yet went on his way rejoicing. The hard things had been made easy, and because of that, his life was changed.
When we extend grace to others because of the incomparable grace that has been shown to us….when we are generous with our time, and genuine in our love…hard things become easy.