Feb. 1, 2009
Background Scripture: 2 Kings 4:8-17
Devotional Reading: Luke 6:32-36

This Sunday, Feb. 1, is the fourth and last Sunday of Epiphany. The day of Epiphany is always Jan. 6 and thus is always the 12th night of Christmas.

As both a day and a season, Epiphany does not so much end Christmas as extend and fulfill it – I have long advocated that we celebrate Christmas considerably beyond Dec. 25, and I shudder when I see Christmas trees abandoned on the sidewalk on Dec. 26. Furthermore, Epiphany celebrates the visit of the Wise Men to the newborn Jesus, an event of great Christian significance.

So, in the beautiful little story of the Shunamite woman in 2 Kings 4, I identify her example of matchless grace with that of the Magi who followed a star to Bethlehem and gave a peasant infant three of the most priceless gifts existing in that day and time. But what made their giving extraordinary was that they expected nothing in return.

So, the story in 2 Kings 4 is illustrative of grace, God’s free and unmerited gift of love and salvation. It means giving without the expectation of receiving in return.

The Wise Men could not have expected Mary and Joseph to give gifts in return. Neither did the Shunamite woman expect something from Elisha. How much of our Christmas – and other – giving is based upon an expectation of something in return?

A holy man

The wealthy woman of Shunem had observed that Elisha from time to time passed through the town. Perceiving that Elisha was a holy man, she said to her husband, “Let us make a small roof chamber with walls, and put there for him a bed, a table, a chair and a lamp, so that whenever he comes to us, he can go in there” (4:10). (This would have been a small upper chamber on the house’s flat roof, with access by an outside stairway.)

Eventually, Elisha instructed his servant Gehazi to ask what he could do for the woman. But she was satisfied and desired nothing from him. Then, Gehazi revealed that the woman was childless and her husband old. So, Elisha gives her the gift for which she neither asked nor expected: A son!

Her gracious gift to Elisha was without strings or reservations, and what she received in return was unanticipated and unmerited – grace. Someone has defined grace as “what God gives you when we don’t deserve and mercy is when God doesn’t give us what we do deserve.” We understand that grace is a free and unmerited gift of love from God.

An alternative meaning of grace is attractive beauty. If someone walks gracefully, it is a movement beautiful to behold. God’s grace to us is also a thing of indescribable beauty.

A little prayer?

We also use “grace” as a term for the prayer of thanks we pray before a meal. But writer Jackie Windspear says, “Grace isn’t a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal. It’s a way to live.” If we open our lives to receive God’s grace, we must also open ourselves to giving grace to others.

According to Karl Barth, “Grace must find expression in life, otherwise it is not Grace.” This story has caused me to consider all those who have bestowed grace upon me in my life, starting with my parents and continuing in seemingly infinite numbers. Those who gave the best gifts of all were those who did not expect repayment.

The dramatist Eugene O’Neill, wrote: “This is Daddy’s bedtime secret for today: Man is born broken. He lives by mending. God’s grace is glue.”

Pass the glue, please.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Rev. Althouse may write to him in care of this publication.