Sorry for What

Oh how we love plants. We talk to them, believing they’ll thrive if we handled them with TLC.

Some of us get attached to animals, treating them like kin, even bedding with them.

Isn’t it true that we sometimes care more for moss yet dismiss people like dross?

Jonah the prophet is typical. God told him to go to Nineveh to warn the city of God’s wrath if they didn’t shape up.

He went the opposite way, riding a boat to Tarshish. But God’s business was---and up to now---that of loving people and saving them.

So He chased the boat with a storm, forcing its crew to throw Jonah into the sea. Three days inside the belly of a fish, he had no choice but to repent and obey God.

He did warn Nineveh of God’s impending doom if they didn’t repent, which they did; so God withheld destruction.

Jonah’s reaction? “Very angry,” was how the bible described his response---because God didn’t level the sinful city.

As Jonah sulked, God made a leafy plant to grow beside him to shield him from the sun. But too came a worm. It ate the plant which pretty soon died.

Feeling sore that the plant withered, he became furious again. “Is it right for you to be angry because the plant died?” God asked.

“You feel sorry about the plant... Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness... Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city? (Jonah 4:10,11)

Aren’t we just like Jonah? Raring to pounce on others because we think they’re scum and so must suffer God’s wrath.

Honestly, we all are guilty just like the people of Nineveh. None exempt!

That’s why Jesus came. He showed us Jonah-and-Nineveh-types that God’s grace overlooks our wrongs. Jesus offers love and forgiveness instead.