by Cathy Vinson

The controversial statement of today's verse is welcomed by a new Christian. But as time passes, this truth can be more challenging. In Matthew 20, those sought early in the morning for hire weathered 12 hours of "life." But in line for their compensation, they became "last." They "carried the burden" and became joyless, unthankful, sour. This is the tendency of the 12-hour workers.

What is Jesus trying to tell us? It has been a privilege to be under hire and hired early. Would it is be better to sit idle in the marketplace until the eleventh hour even if the pay is the same? Are there delights we are missing along the way to enjoy the passage of years, and so we may not grumble and be last?

The prodigal's father said to the elder laboring brother, "Don't you know that you ARE ALWAYS WITH ME, and ALL THAT I HAVE is yours?" (Lk 15:31). Had this elder brother drawn upon this along with the 12-hour workers, their burden would not have had to be as heavy as they complained.

In our seeming "burden and heat of the day" (Lk 15:29 and Mt 20:12), let us be glad we are under hire, grateful that we haven't spent more of our lives purposelessly and in the "futility of their (our) thinking" Eph 4:18).

We HAVE His listening Ear, access to His throne, acceptance in the Beloved, and a ministry of reconciliation. Let's delightfully, step-by-step, creep into our Father's royal closet and creatively dress our lives with such great delights!

(Matthew 20:16 )