"Bless His Heart"

The 5/7 verse of the day is from Matthew 5:7 of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy."  (NLT)

Mercy.  It can be described as lenient or compassionate treatment, especially toward one's offender.  I think if I could choose one word to embody mercy it would be "heart".  Showing compassion to someone that, especially, doesn't deserve it, indicates a heart of love and mercy to me.  Jesus showed us such mercy.  None of us deserved the mercy He showed us as He died on a cross in payment for our sins.  While "heart" is the word I think best embodies mercy, the person who embodies it like no one ever can, or will, is Jesus.  He wants us to be like Him in showing mercy to others; especially those that have offended us, or don't deserve it.  I believe showing such mercy will not only bless others, but bless us, as well.

I'm a Kentucky girl and today is the Kentucky Derby.  We love to say things like "Bless his heart!"  To honor my "Old Kentucky Home" and throw in a horse story that I feel has a lot of heart, I submit to you the story of Secretariat.  Secretariat is considered by many to be the greatest thoroughbred racehorse of all time; a triple crown winner.  I toured Claiborne Farms in Kentucky recently; the farm where Secretariat is buried.  Upon doing an autopsy at Secretariat's death, his heart was found to weigh 22 lbs, almost three times the size of a normal racehorse's heart. 

Secretariat began as an underdog who no one would have believed to be a winner.  Yet, as a select few people in the horse industry showed mercy to the owner, this horse proved to be the biggest, fastest horse of, what some would say, all-time.  I say the thing that made him such a blessing to those he encountered was his heart.  It was later determined that Secretariat had a gene for a large heart that was passed down through the X chromosome. 

Our X Factor comes from our Father, God.  No matter what condition our heart begins with, we get a life-giving heart transplant, through God's mercy, when we believe in Jesus.  You could say that it makes our heart larger, in a spiritual sense.  As we run the race called life, we can imitate our bloodline and finish as a winner.  We've been given more mercy than we ever deserved and can show our Father's heart by turning around and giving it away to others who don't deserve it either.  I say go ahead and "Run for the Roses" and be blessed!