Grass getting rained on?

   Greetings to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.  This morning's devotion included Psalm 72.  In this psalm there was a line that has stuck with me all day.  The line is verse 6: "May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass."  This line sticks with me for two reasons.  The first is because it made me think back to one time I was a young child and I heard the pastor of my home church compare us to the grass.  I went home that night and wrote a "sermon" on what it would be like if we as people really were grass.  It was quite comical and even included a cow pie if I remember correctly.  However, the second reason this line has stuck with me all day is because it is a beautiful metaphor for how faith really works.  We really are like grass in the sense that we can do nothing to earn or gain our justification.  Grass does nothing to earn the rain.  The only thing grass can do is what it was designed to do, grow!  So the grass just does what it was made to do and it grows.  It is completely dependent on other to provide for it.  The grass needs the rain, but all it can do is wait for the rain to come.  We like grass need God's grace and forgiveness to live eternally and yet there is nothing we can do to earn or gain God's grace. We like the grass must do what we were created to do and wait for God to send His grace on us.  And do you notice something else?  It says the mown grass.  Why is this important?  Because I think we all know that when it rains on freshly cut grass, it is ready more now that ever to start growing.  It has been trimmed and watered and the conditions are just right for growing.  So it is with us and being cut down.  When the law shows us our sins and the fact that we deserve nothing but eternal condemnation and then God showers us with His grace and forgiveness, never is there a more prime time for us to grow.  We have been cut down by the law and our sin, but we have been watered by the Gospel and we are now ready to do what God has created us to do, grow in our faith.  So this simple line reminds me that as I daily confess my sins to God in prayer, I have been mown.  The old sinful nature is cut down.  And at the very same time God showers His grace, love, and mercy of Jesus Christ and His salvation down upon me and gives me the strength to grow.  So let us all pray that God may be like rain on the mown grass and know that the Law and Gospel of Jesus Christ are always working in our lives to help us grow in our faith and do exactly what God has created us to do, and all of this happens without any effort or merit of our own.  What a gracious and loving God we have to shower us with His gifts so that we can grow in Him, Amen.