This weekend, Chris and I tackled some of our Christmas shopping. On Sunday, after church, amongst getting ingredients to make Taco Soup for the Dare 2 Be youth this week, we needed to get a gift for a gentleman we "adopted" from the Christmas tree at my mom's church. We picked a gift out for him, and then supplemented the rest with a gift card (he wanted a dress shirt--we didn't have enough information to pick one out for him. i.e. neck size). When we got home, Chris asked me for the gift card which he thought I had put in my purse. Guess what. . .it wasn't there. It wasn't in any of the other four or six grocery sacks, and it wasn't in any of our coat pockets. It wasn't in the trunk of the car, and it wasn't in the passenger seat where I was sitting either. Cue tearing apart the house. Could it have slipped in-between the couch cushions? Between the counter and the fridge where I had so neatly lined up the canned goods? Checking coat pockets and grocery sacks again, and again, and again. . .me dumping my purse out, Chris dumping my purse out. Thumbing through my Bible and Catechism where I had placed my note card for the children's message and a check for Pastor earlier that day for safe keeping. The most obscure places we could think to look, we did! It wasn't in any of those places! I called the store, it hadn't been turned in. I clearly remember the cashier handing it to me along with the envelope, and after tucking it into the envelope, I sure couldn't tell you what I did with it. . .
At this time I started apologizing profusely to Chris. Our budget is already super tight this year, we don't have spare money simply to throw around (or lose). We drove back to the store to see if it happened to still be in the cart--it wasn't. We checked the parking lot, where we stopped to rent a movie, everywhere we could think to check, we did. I continued apologizing, feeling like the worse person ever. Chris kept telling me "It's okay" in which I would not accept that answer. "It's not okay, we don't have spare money." To which he replied "Accidents happen." I was not okay with that answer--I am quite responsible and careful.
When we got home, he embraced me in a tight, but loving hug, and after my persisting that the situation was not okay, he said those three words "I forgive you". Forgive, now I could deal with that. The situation was not okay, but he forgave me. Those three words told me he loved me, and I mattered, and that because he loved me, it was okay. Like one of the ever popular wedding passages that was read at our wedding even: 1 Corinthians 13:4-7New International Version (NIV) 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
This got me thinking. (My dad would say "uh-oh". When my brain starts thinking, it could be dangerous).
"Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her." Ephesians 5:25
BUT before we even get to the New Testament, there are SO many times in the Old Testament where the Israelites would mess up and stray away from God, but because He loved them so much, He continued providing for them. This is not to say their life was easy-peasy, but God was faithful, even when the Israeilites were not! He loved them so much, He continued taking care of them, loving them, showing them the right way. And even when they turned away over, and over, and over again (they turned away more times then I checked my coat pockets and grocery sacks), God loved His people SO much, that He continued to show them the right way.
And THEN, New Testament--WHAM! Sunday School answer anyone? JESUS!
His life's purpose was so that He would be born to a virgin and die this horrible, brutal death to forgive me, and you, and your brother, and your friend, and your enemy, and EVERYONE of their sins! No, we don't deserve it--throw back to the Old Testament when the serpent tempted Eve with the fruit of the forbidden tree. And what did Eve do? She gave it it Adam! (Genesis 3:2-6) And from that point on, we were fallen. From that point on, when God kicked them out of the Garden of Eden we did not deserve God's forgiveness, love, or mercy, but He gave it to us! All of us! No matter our sin--no sin is too great for God's love and mercy, and. . .FORGIVENESS! But you see, there's also Genesis 3:15 When man will crush Satan's head (Jesus will defeat death, and sin!). And then, there's Genesis 3:21. Though God kicked them out of the Garden of Eden--it was not without love. He clothed them and continued providing for them. And we jump back to the New Testament--John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life!" This does not say "Whoever does no wrong shall have eternal life". Nope, it says whoever believes in Him. Whoever believes that Jesus died so that we may live--that Jesus died to forgive us our sins--that Jesus went to hell, and on the third day rose again beating death (1 Peter 3) so that 2,000 years later we get to live because He died, and rose again to daily whisper, tell, shout those words to us: "I FORGIVE YOU!" Like when He was on the cross "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" Luke 23:34 There He was asking God to forgive the very people who put him on the cross (which is you and me by the way), but in that moment, the people carrying out the action--we are sinful people, we do and we don't know what we are doing, but God STILL forgives us. Because HE. LOVES. US. and daily, He tells us "I FORGIVE YOU". Aren't you happy to rest in the knowledge that even when we don't apologize profusely, God still forgives us? But He likes a repentant heart and acknowledgement too. You are forgiven daily--even when you don't deserve it, and that right there, that's something to thank God for daily! Because He loves YOU!
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