🌾 Grace Is Better Than Fair

 

🌾 Grace Is Better Than Fair

Faith + Flourish Coaching

Helping you find your joy, strengthen your faith, and live a life you love.

Have you read The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah?

It’s one of those stories that lingers—the kind that makes you feel the dust in your throat, the ache in your bones, and the longing in your heart for someone, anyone, to cut them a break.

As I read about Elsa and her family scraping by through the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, I kept thinking:

I just want someone to be kind.

Someone to notice their struggle.

To extend compassion instead of judgment.

To give them a chance.

That ache—the longing for mercy and generosity—was still sitting in me when I opened my Bible to Matthew 20.

And it hit different.

🌿 Because No One Has Hired Us

I want to share this full story with you, because the details matter.

Matthew 20:1–16 (ESV)

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.

After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.

And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace,

and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’

So they went.

Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same.

And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing.

And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’

They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’

He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’

And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman,

‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’

And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius.

Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more,

but each of them also received a denarius.

And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying,

‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us

who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’

But he replied to one of them,

‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?

Take what belongs to you and go.

I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you.

Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?

Or do you begrudge my generosity?’

So the last will be first, and the first last.”

Those words stopped me:

“Because no one has hired us.”

They weren’t lazy.

They were waiting to be chosen.

Waiting for someone to say, “You belong in the vineyard too.”

And that’s what the kingdom of heaven looks like—

a God who keeps going back to the marketplace,

again and again,

looking for the ones still waiting.

💗 Grace That Shocks the System

When the master finally pays the workers, he gives the same wage to everyone—

even those hired at the very end of the day.

The early workers grumble, because it’s not fair.

But the master’s reply echoes the heart of God:

“Friend, I am doing you no wrong.

Did you not agree with me for a denarius?

Take what belongs to you and go.

I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you.

Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?

Or do you begrudge my generosity?”

— Matthew 20:13–15 (ESV)

Grace isn’t fair.

It’s better than fair.

It’s kindness where you least expect it.

Mercy that meets you late in the day.

Generosity that rewrites your story.

“Grace is not transactional—it’s transformational.”

🌸 For the One Who’s Waiting

Maybe today you feel like one of those workers still standing in the marketplace—

waiting for your moment, your chance, your invitation.

You’ve shown up.

You’ve been faithful.

And you’re wondering if anyone sees you.

Friend, God hasn’t forgotten you.

He’s still calling people into His vineyard—

even at the eleventh hour.

And when He calls,

He gives not what’s fair,

but what’s good.

“So the last will be first, and the first last.” — Matthew 20:16 (ESV)

✨ Reflection for the Week

Pause for a moment today and pray:

“Lord, open my eyes to the ones still waiting in the marketplace.

Help me notice them the way You notice me.

Make me generous with my time, my grace, and my kindness.”

Because every act of compassion echoes heaven—

and every bit of generosity brings the kingdom closer.

Grace really is better than fair.

And sometimes, it shows up right when you think the day is almost over. 🌿

With love,

Jen 💗

Faith + Flourish Coaching

Helping you find your joy, strengthen your faith, and live a life you love.