Does God's goodness reach me, or just better people?

There's a quiet suspicion many of us carry: that God's goodness is distributed on a curve. That it flows toward people who pray more, sin less, or have their lives more together. That somewhere there's a cutoff, and you're not sure which side of it you're on.

That suspicion is understandable. It's easy to feel like grace is a reward for the deserving.

But the scripture doesn't say that. It says, 'The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.' Not to the qualified. Not to the spiritually disciplined. To all. On all he has made. You were made by him. That puts you squarely inside that word.

His goodness isn't a prize handed out after a review of your record. It is simply what he is—and it covers what he made. That includes you, as you are tonight, not a better version of you somewhere in the future.

You don't have to earn your way into this. You're already in it. The question isn't whether you qualify. The answer is already settled: all.