Fulfilling Stories - Valued

(Kalas book 1, chapter 10) Kalas grew up during the Great Depression, and he knew good men who were “un-hired hands.” Unemployment is spirit-crushing, and perhaps central to understanding this parable and its story of grace is the landowner’s question to those hired at the last hour and their response: “Why are you standing here idle all day?”  “Because no one has hired us.”  The fact that the landowner gives a full day’s wage to those who worked an hour may be a recognition of basic human dignity: it conveys a sense of value to those who were overlooked.  That, in a nutshell, is the essence of grace.