Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Our Reading titled, God's Heart for All, was written by Patricia Rabin.

Nine-year-old Dan Gill arrived with his best friend Archie at their classmates' birthday party.

When the mother of the birthday boy saw Archie, however, she refused him entry.

There aren't enough chairs, she insisted.

Dan offered to sit on the floor to make room for his friend, who was black, but the mother said no.

Dejected, Dan left their presence with her and returned

home with Archie, the sting of his friend's rejection searing his heart. Now, decades later,

Dan is a schoolteacher who keeps one empty chair in his classroom. When students ask why, he explains it's his reminder to always have room in the classroom for anyone.

A heart for all people can be seen in Jesus' welcoming life, as he said in Matthew 1128,

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

This invitation may seem to contradict the first to the Jew scope of Jesus' ministry,

but the gift of salvation is for all people who place their faith in Jesus.

This is true for everyone who believes, Paul wrote in Romans chapter 3, no matter who we

are.

We rejoice then at Christ's invitation to all.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For all seeking his rest, his open heart awaits.

Today's Our Daily Bread Devotional Scripture reading is from Matthew chapter 11, verses 27 through 30.

All things have been committed to me by my father. No one knows the son except the father,

and no one knows the father except the son and those to whom the son chooses to reveal him.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

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