Is it true that nothing in life is free? Maybe we react to cynical marketing techniques by keeping a healthy scepticism? What if I sit down and enjoy a beautiful sunset, or do some voluntary work simply because I care? The following is a musing on what I believe is a profound paradox – that the most priceless thing of all is also the most free – and most available.
Free broadband! Get six months free!
Buy one, get one free! Oh what glee!
Yet cynics among us, it seems to me,
Will say that nothing’s free in reality.
Nothing in life is free, friends will say.
Daily living, like business, has to pay.
Everything has its cost, goes the cliche.
All human interaction entails an outlay.
Even human love has its quid pro quo:
When we love we leave ourselves open to woe.
Sharp are the arrows from Cupid’s bow;
Love’s motives coloured by a flawed ego.
Yet, one thing might just be free after all:
Perhaps the most precious, most essential.
Jesus spoke of hidden treasure so special
A man might give his all for such a windfall.
Not our scant love for God but His love for us:
Only ‘hidden’ because sin renders us clueless.
Exiled from Eden, we chant an orphans’ chorus,
To be reWorded in Jesus who came to restore us.
Priceless, but free, and there for the taking,
While we busy with mutual heart breaking.
We can find this treasure by submitting to Him:
The birds of the air thrive – so too His anawim.
That which we most need, absolutely need,
Is given to us, gratis, with nothing to impede
Our uptake, save our own spirit, sin-palsied:
With closed heart and mind, we fail to heed.
Blest then the poor in spirit, no room for pride,
No leisure to quibble, no options to decide:
Needy, desperate, hungry, heart open wide,
Whereas others among us are quick to deride.
Nothing in life is free? Except the most vital,
Most precious, most priceless, most pivotal
For destiny’s path and each one’s survival:
God’s love, given completely, for one, for all.