Drawing: Ronald Raab, CSC
“Last minute”

This is one of my first drawings from a couple of weeks ago after not picking up a pencil in over thirty years. He is the worker being hired at five o’clock. No one hired him that day, he waited until the very end. He looks over his shoulder in unbelief and yet relief, with caution and mistrust and yet gratitude. He received his full-day pay.

God’s love and mercy are a gift to us even at the last minute. So often we think we need to earn God’s love. Free, free, free is the mercy of the Father. We do not pull ourselves up from our own bootstraps to get to heaven. We do not save ourselves. God saves us, even at the last minute.