14 Days of God's Love - Day 12 - He did it!

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  – Romans 5:8

"I didn’t do it", he says as I walk down the hallway to the bedroom.  A loud thud had startled us as we sat in the kitchen.  Of course being concerned for his safety, we called out to him to see what had happened.  Looking into the door of his bedroom, the bookshelf had tipped over scattering toys and books everywhere.  He was the only one in the room and all indications pointed to his guilt in the situation.  When we asked him what happened he explained quickly, “I didn’t do it.  I was just standing here and it fell.”  Obviously, he was trying to cover up his guilt, but it went even farther.  My son, at age 4, began to blame it on his imaginary friend Luke. 

With the straightest face in the world, he looked up at us, his eyes twinkling with imagination and crafted an unbelievable story about his friend who was invisible, and maybe he was climbing up the shelf and knocked it over.  Well, I did what any father would do.  I told him that Luke could not play at our house anymore if he was going to do dangerous things like that.  He would have to stay outside, because we don’t want things in the house getting broken when Luke climbs on them.  My son’s response was one of responsibility, “Okay, Dad, I’ll tell him for you.”  Luke hasn’t visited us in quite awhile, but I’m pretty sure he taught our son how to climb shelves, because that hasn’t stopped.

Making mistakes is natural.  It happens every day to every one of us.  As hard as we try to do the right things, we are going to mess it up from time to time.  Life is filled with temptations and it takes a strong will to resist giving in to them.  In our weakness we are prone to succumb to our human desires and emotions, resulting in separation from God’s perfect will in our life.  The scripture captures God and heaven as a place of perfection (Matthew 5:48) to which no unrighteous, sinful man is capable of entering.  We are all born into sin though, which originates from Adam and Eve.  Because of our inherent sinful nature, we are all prone to living in a state of sin in our life.  This causes a huge chasm between the perfection required by God the Father and His children (us).  Jesus Christ was not born of man, but of the Holy Spirit, thereby separating Him from mankind’s original sin.  Through His perfect life He taught us who God is and what God expects from us.  He was sent from God the Father with the sole purpose of ushering us into God’s plan of salvation. The fact that God has provided a way for us to overcome our sin and join Him in eternity demonstrates His huge love and desire for us. 

Just as any father watches over the safety of his children and throughout life teaches them to follow rules, be truthful and love others; God in heaven is teaching us the same.  There are many excuses and others we can blame for the sin in our life, but we must realize God sees and knows all things.  He knows we are sinful, yet still loves us.  He knows we cannot overcome our propensity to sin, but gave us a path to heaven anyway.  We don’t deserve to enter His perfect kingdom, but He wants us regardless.  This is the grace of our Lord.

 Prayer:
Loving Father,
You have provided for our every need.  You have forgiven our sins and provided a way for us to cross the chasm of unrighteousness and join You in eternity.  We lay our sins at the foot of the cross and look to You saving grace.  Build in us the strength to overcome our sinful nature and give back to You the love You deserve.  In Your name we pray – Amen

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