ALPHA MAAMA (A.M.)

 SAPATE ME 17, 2026

2 KALONIKALI 35-36; 1 KOLINITO 1:18-31

God often uses unlikely and unusual instruments to advance his eternal mission of grace.

‘Oku lahi ‘a e taimi ‘oku ngaue’aki ai ‘e he ‘Otua ‘a e ngaahi me’angaue ta’e’amanekina mo makehe ke fakamafola‘aki ‘a e misiona ‘o ‘ene kelesi. 

I had a hard talk with my teenage son. It was late at night, and I think both of us just wanted to go to sleep. It had been hard going, but I thought the talk had ended on a good note. As I walked out of his room, I said, "I am so glad we talked." But I heard my son say, "I didn't" "You didn't what?" I asked. He said, "I didn't talk, because you didn't give me a chance." I walked back in his room, sat down on his bed, and said, "Talk to me now." He said, "When you came in this room, you had already made your judgment. We weren't having a conversation; you were just announcing my punishment. I didn't have an opportunity to explain why I did what I did because you weren't interested." His words pierced my heart. He was exactly right. He had made me angry, and I had judged him without any facts. I had gone into that room to enact discipline, but I had totally missed the opportunity to hear my son, to see into his heart, and to love him with fatherly and gospel love. In that moment there was a bit of a role reversal. God, in his faithful grace, raised up the son to parent the father. I am thankful that God is so unrelentingly committed to his redeeming work that, in his infinite wisdom, he uses whatever instrument at whatever time is best.

We should never be so proud that we reject whomever or whatever God intends to use to continue his work in us. Every tool God uses in our lives has been preappointed by him. There are no accidents. There are no divine last-minute decisions. There are no wrong choices. God always uses the right person or thing to take us where he has decided we will go.

For most of us, Cyrus, king of Persia, is an unlikely tool in God's hands to release God's people from captivity and secure the rebuilding of God's temple in Jerusalem. That is why the following words are so important:

Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: "Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, "The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the LORD his God be with him. Let him go up." (2 Chron. 36:22-23)

God, the owner and ruler of all things, uses whatever instrument he knows is best to do whatever is best for his children. That is called amazing grace.