Thinking Lightly

I've been slowly getting back into translating Romans from Greek to English, and recently my work in Romans 2 jumped out at me.  Here is my literal translation of Romans 2:4-

"Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, being ignorant that the kindness of God leads you into repentance?"

Do you "think lightly" of God's kindness and forbearance and patience?  Is it a small thing to you, something that rests lightly on your mind and heart?  The truth of God's new-every-morning mercies in Christ is the most massive, weighty reality in the universe, a reality which should be daily, hourly crushing the sin out of our souls, taking our breath away, and bowing our hearts down before the throne of grace.

Yet too often in the church and in my experience, God's grace has been a small, light thing.  Too often I reckon "the riches of His kindness" to be more like a $5 bill and less like the inexhaustible, precious treasure that it really is.  Too many mornings, the patience of God is a small thing to me.  I rise with my alarm clock and go about my day, not stopping to realize in wonder and awe that God again caused the sun to rise this morning on millions of people-- myself included-- who deserved to die in their sleep and yet have another day of divine forbearance and mercy in front of them.  Think of it!  The sun rose this morning-- a testament to God's love for His enemies.  "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may  be sons of your Father who is in heaven.  For He makes His sun rise on the evil and the good, and He sends rain on the just and the unjust." (Matthew 5:44-45)  And the same love for His enemies that the sunrise proclaimed this morning was also demonstrated, in an even more magnificently glorious way, on the cross.  "While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son." (Romans 5:10).  Every morning, we should be staggered by the sunrise!

O, that the weight of God's kindness and forbearance and patience would fall with sin-shattering, joy-maximizing implications on His people!  By His massive mercy, may we today find His kindness to be wealth beyond compare, His forbearance to be an unending fountain of hope, and His patience to be a firm foundation of peace.