Our Story: Rescued
The Only Reason We Ever Got Together
The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am foremost.—1 Timothy 1:15
As will become evident, there are a lot of reasons why Ben and I would never have gotten together if we wrote the story. Actually, I can only give one basic reason why we did. God got involved.
Not in a surface-level, religious kind of way that means we share common values and both wanted to raise our children in the church.
No, it was a real shake-up, and not just at the beginning. He didn't just put a little gold star of Christianity on our chart. He shredded the chart and gave us something a whole lot scarier, happier, more breath-taking, satisfying, and surprising in its place.
For Ben, it was sometime around 8-years-old. In his words:
"Mom, why can't I go to youth group?"
Everything that my brothers had told me about youth group was cool. When they memorized a verse they got to throw a wet sponge at the youth pastor. What could be cooler than that?
"You're not old enough, Ben." My mom was always the voice of reason.
The details are a little foggy. It was dark outside our semi-rustic house. The 12-acre plot in New Hampshire was the perfect playground for an eight-year-old and his brothers just coming into the high adventure stage of life. The cozy little house, after a hard day of play, was the God-ordained place for a new heart to begin beating.
Somehow the Holy Spirit guided my mom that night from talking about the inner workings of the youth group to the eternal truths of Jesus Christ and my need for Him.
I remember lying in my bed and praying. I don't remember much of what I prayed, but this was the first time, in my recollection, that my thoughts superseded my little self and went to the basic reality of the gospel and God. I did not know it at the time, but God, by his grace, had granted faith and where once was dead, cold stone, now was a beating heart.
I pulled the covers up to my chin and waited. No thunder, no rumble. I suppose I was waiting for the reply. I heard none that night, but there was a reply. Little did I know that God had replied by baring His Son's back to the scourge instead of mine. he had replied by dispatching the full weight of His wrath on His perfect Son, on the cross. The perfect Son was cursed, and because of this the cursed son was made perfect. Praise His name.
For me, it was age 5. You'd think there isn't much to repent of at age 5, but I have a mental snapshot of my mom chasing me around the backyard because I wouldn't obey and come inside when it was time for my friend to go home. Just as one example.
The short story (as recalled somewhat second-hand) is that my mom was reading me a book, Spunky's Diary (Janette Oke), in which a little girl dies of cancer. I grew somewhat inconsolable at that point in the story, and my mom asked what was wrong.
I said, it's just so sad, the little girl dying and being gone forever. My mom corrected me, No, honey, she's not gone forever, because the story tells us that she was trusting in Jesus as her Savior. So she isn't gone forever; she's with the Lord.
It was a little open door to walk through the basics again for a little 5-year-old heart:
God made everything; He's perfect and true and only, only good.
You are a sinner. You do wrong things, you want your own way, you disobey God's perfect standard, you love yourself more than God.
Your sin puts you far away from God. He is a good judge, and that means He must call bad "bad." The Bible says that sin requires a punishment of death ... being away from God forever. We can never work hard enough or do enough good to pay that off.
But God made a way of rescue! His Son Jesus, who is God Himself, came to earth as a man, lived a perfect life, and died. He didn't die because he did wrong things; He actually died to pay the penalty for His enemies who did wrong things. But He didn't stay dead ... He came alive again to show that God said YES to His sacrifice.
And if anyone will trust that God's way of rescue is true--that Jesus' death was enough--and will look to Him to cover over your sin and give you a new heart, then God will make a great exchange. He will put your sin on Jesus and say that it is paid in full. And He will put Jesus' perfect life on you, and call you His own child.
And somehow, in a simple, immature little 5-year-old heart, God gave me that great exchange.
It may seem like an odd story to include, but I do mean it when I say there's no other reason Ben and I got together. That fairly unspectacular episode in each of our lives set us on a totally different trajectory than we ever would have dreamed.
And lest I miss the chance, let me ask you to consider if you are trying to work your way back into God's good graces or if you look to Jesus as the one and only Hero for your heart.
Ultimately, that's the only story that will matter.
Next Installment: A Long Wait
No comments:
Post a Comment