Fairness vs. grace

Yesterday evening, we had an interesting story play out in our home. Since we had not been making the girls clean up all week, the living room was pretty trashed. I finally made it to the library to pick up some books I had requested and found that the movie that I had requested was also in - The Secret Garden, which we had just read together a few months ago. When the girls saw it in my library bag, they were thrilled and wanted to watch it. However, there was really no where to sit in our living room comfortably to watch, so I said that we couldn't watch until the room was cleaned. I didn't tell them that they had to clean it up, because we were giving them until today.
Well, one of our girls wanted to watch the movie so much that she took the incentive to clean the whole room by herself, while the other one chose to play and actually had a pretty nasty attitude about it. So, before dinner, I told the one that she and I would get to watch the movie that evening. To the other, I explained that she would not get to watch the movie that night, that she had chosen to play instead of cleaning up, which was fine because we were not requiring them to clean up, but that it was not fair for her to watch it, too, since she had not helped at all. This one was crushed and went weeping to sit on her bed.
At dinner, while the second child was still upstairs crying, Matt talked to our one daughter and commended her on choosing to clean up all by herself, without much complaining or fussing that the other daughter was not helping. Then, he told her that, if she wanted, she could choose to say that her sister could watch the movie with us that night, even though it was not the fair thing to do since she had not helped clean up the room at all. This daughter immediately and joyfully asked if she could be the bearer of the good news and invite her sister to watch, too. She did this without pride or boasting, just excited to see her sister happy.
After our other elated daughter came flying down the stairs, Matt took the opportunity to talk with the girls a bit. He explained that this was an example of grace instead of "fairness." What was fair was for the first daughter to watch the movie and the second to go to bed. What was grace was the second daughter getting to watch the movie, too, despite her choice not to contribute. He went on to explain that this is what Christ did for us, though He did even more. What Christ did would be like if our first daughter not only cleaned up perfectly and then invited her sister to watch anyway, though she had not done a thing, but if she also then went upstairs to take the punishment (going to bed and not watching) that the sister was going to receive in her place, even though she had not done anything wrong. It is horribly unfair! Our hearts would cry out against it if we were asked to do such a thing, but, amazingly, Christ counted it all joy to do just that for us! He took all of our sins upon His perfect sinless self and bore our punishment in our place, and then He gave us His righteousness so that, in Him, we (who are anything but perfect and sinless) don't even look like sinners but are perfectly spotless in His sight! Amazing! A great gospel opportunity with our kids! I pray for more of these and for all of us to grow in our appreciation for and understanding of these amazing truths!