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Today when I was at home for lunch I had the bright idea to do a fun little experiment with the kids. It all started when I made a crack to my son about his shorts and he looked down like, “I have shorts on!?” My wife and I were eating at the table and the kids were playing in their rooms. I decided to call them out one by one, tell them to close their eyes, and ask them what clothes they had on.
I called my son out first. He closed his eyes just as he was asked and I said, “Describe what you are wearing.” He kept his eyes closed but this incredulous look came over his face like, “You expect me to know that!” I restated the question as he stood there in his brown t-shirt and grey shorts. He stuttered a bit and then said in a questioning tone, “Blue shirt?” Ha! Wrong. He opened his eyes, rolled them at his brown shirt and took off.
Next I called out my 8 year old daughter. I gave her the same instructions and posed the question. She stood there in stunned silence as my wife and I died laughing. Finally she said, “What?” She was stalling for time to think. She brought her hands up and had to feel her night gown before she remembered. Cheater. We sent her off laughing.
Finally I called out the 3 year old. I told her to close her eyes and she did. (She had her hands full of puzzle pieces if you want the complete mental picture.) She was wearing a white t-shirt with some incriminating red Kool-aid stains on the sleeves. I said, “What are you wearing?” She squinted one eye, and peeked down with the other. Even staring at her shirt she said, “White shirt?” She was suspicious it was trick question. “Good job!” we applauded!
I recently read that the gospel is so much more than a plan of salvation for the lost. It is the water in which a Christian swims everyday. I have often been guilty of thinking of the Gospel as the diving board into the pool of Christianity. But the reality is that the Gospel is the pool itself. The beauty of this truth is that the deeper I swim into the Gospel the more I understand about who I am in Christ. I realize that I am more sinful than I ever dared think, because my only possible remedy required God the Son sacrificing himself on my behalf. In the wake of that terrible reality I realize that I am more loved than I ever dared dream, because Jesus did exactly that. 2 Corinthians tells us that “God had Christ, who was sinless, take our sin so that we might receive God’s approval through him.”
If you want to see yourself as you really are, take a look at yourself through the lens of the Gospel. What you will see may surprise you, but it will be a surprise that will heal your heart.
James 1 says in vs. 22-24 “Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.”
How many times have we heard God’s word taught, or read it ourselves telling us how we could find deep meaning in life through the message of the gospel; only to go on living in frustration and confusion? The only right response to the message of the scriptures is to embrace the love of Christ and allow it to shape us into the men and women God would have us be. Otherwise it’s like wandering around not even knowing what kind of clothes you have on, or who you really are at all.
