THE AMAZING, SAVING GRACE!!!! Fiorello LaGuardia was the mayor of New York City during the worst days of the Great Depression and all of WWII. He was called by adoring New Yorkers “the Little Flower” because he was only five foot four and always wore a carnation in his lapel. LaGuardia was a colorful character who used to ride the New York City fire trucks, raid speakeasies with the police department, take entire orphanages to baseball games, and whenever the New York newspapers were on strike, he would go on the radio and read the Sunday funnies to the kids. One bitterly cold night in January of 1935, the mayor turned up at a night court that served the poorest ward of the city. LaGuardia dismissed the judge and took over the bench himself. Within a few minutes, a tattered old woman was brought before him, charged with stealing a loaf of bread. She told LaGuardia that her daughters husband had deserted her, her daughter was sick, and her two grandchildren were starving to death. The shopkeeper, from whom the bread was stolen, refused to drop the charges. “Its a real bad neighborhood, your Honor.” The man told the mayor. “Shes got to be punished to teach other people around here a lesson.” LaGuardia sighed. He turned to the woman and said, “Ive got to punish you. The law makes no exceptions--ten dollars or ten days in jail.” But even as he pronounced sentence, the mayor was already reaching into his pocket. He extracted a bill and tossed it into his famous sombrero saying: “Here is the ten dollar fine which I now remit, and furthermore, I am going to fine everyone in this courtroom fifty cents for living in a town where a person has to steal bread so that her grandchildren can eat. Mr. Bailiff, collect the fines and give them to the defendant.” That poor, little grandmother left that courtroom with $47.50 in her pocket, fifty cents of that amount being contributed by the red-faced grocery store owner. Around that courtroom some seventy petty criminals, people charged with traffic violations, and New York City policemen, each of whom had just paid fifty cents for the privilege of doing so, gave the mayor a standing ovation. That is the very essence of God’s saving grace! Grace recognizes our wretched condition; pays our debt and gives us more than we could ever have imagined. John Newton got it right when he called it amazing! Have you accessed the amazing grace of God in Christ Jesus today? Please do, for tomorrow may be too late. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- Ephesians 2 v 8 - Paul Ola/Alan Carr
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 13:04:52 +0000
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