The Emergency Room at 3 A.M.

Sarah Chen had never run so fast in her life. Her four-year-old son, Marcus, was burning with fever, limp in her arms, and she burst through the doors of St. Luke's Medical Center in Portland at three in the morning still wearing mismatched shoes.

She had no appointment. She hadn't called ahead. She didn't even have her insurance card. But not a single person at that emergency room turned her away. A nurse met her at the door, took one look at Marcus, and said, "Come with me — right now." Within minutes, a doctor was at his bedside. Within an hour, an IV was bringing his fever down.

Sarah didn't earn that care. She didn't present credentials or prove she deserved attention. She came desperate, disheveled, and empty-handed — and she was received as though she were the only mother in the world.

This is what the writer of Hebrews means when he says, "Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." The throne room of the Almighty is not a courtroom where we stand trial. It is not a bureaucrat's office where we fill out forms and wait. It is an emergency room — doors open at every hour, staffed by a God who sees our fever before we speak a word.