Did you attend, or contribute to or even lead a worship service this morning? How was it and how was your part in it. For example, if you played an instrument, did you get all the right notes in the right order at the right times or did you drop a few clangers? Gathering for Christian worship should be a delight but it is easy to feel that it fell short, either because of mistakes you made or how you responded to what others brought with less than amazing grace.

This weekend, I’ve been reading one of the books I picked up at the Keswick Convention, Rhythms of Grace: how the church’s worship tells the story of the gospel by Mike Cosper (Crossway, 2013). I was struck by a line from p. 84: “… having God in our audience means there is One who accepts us just as we are and deems our imperfect worship as made perfect in Jesus.” That isn’t an excuse to give second-best in our worship (Abel, not Cain, should be our model) but it does mean we can trust in God’s grace. He doesn’t wait for us to get to the door of the house and grovel in the dust but runs to meet us before we even get on the property (while we are “still far off” – Luke 15:20).

I suppose we ought to expect this. After all, just look at the fridges of parents with young children. Typically they have pictures by the children stuck on the front. As a ‘critic’, you might judge the images as not very good but the parents are delighting in what those they love have given them. Sad would be the household where young children had to reach a certain standard before their creations where put on display; sad will we be if we treat with scorn what our heavenly Father accepts through the kindness and love of Jesus.