When I think of God’s mercy, I think of a particular dog growing up. His name was Buddy, but my father called him Snagglytooth because he had one tooth that hung out. He was a mutt, and his eyes were two different colors. People always asked us where we got that thing. 

The story goes that my mother went to pick out a family dog from the humane society. She looked at all the cocker and springer spaniels and was all ready to pick one of those up when she walked past Buddy’s cage. Even in the cage, he was not an attractive dog to look at. My mom asked, “What’s the story with this mutt?” The worker said he’d been there for weeks and was on doggy death row because nobody wanted him. As the worker said this and as my mom heard the words that he was going to be put to death, Buddy put his paw on the glass of his cage. Needless to say, my mother took pity on him and brought him home to our farm. 

The apostle Paul tells us in Titus 3:5, “[God] saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.”

By nature, we are in a cage, chained to our sins and left to ourselves to die. We can do all the good works we want, but they won’t save us. Thankfully God in his mercy took pity on us and rescued us.

We are part of his family now!