A Picture of Grace from God's Point of View

[deacon blues]

We have another church renting our facilities. They have been worshiping here almost a year. Every Wednesday night they meet here from 5-7. They have a full fledged dinner every week from 5-6. From 6-7 they have Bible Study. We have coffee and fellowship from 7:00-7:15 and Bible Study, youth ministry, and kids church from 7:15-8.

When we are done the other church usually has some of their members still cleaning up from the dinner. One lady who is always there is Cynthia. Wednesday night after we were standing around chatting with various members of our church, Cynthia walked past me and said "My grandson wants to talk to you." In my mind I pictured a teenager or a young man. I was curious what he needed to talk to me about since I didn't recall ever meeting him.

While I was talking to our youth leader and his wife, this little man walked up to me, probably about five, a whole row of upper and lower teeth missing, standing about waist high, with the brownest eyes you could imagine. He stood so close to me he had to lean his head back as far as he could to look me in the eyes. "Mistoe Pastoe Mawk, I bwoke yoe wooloe (I broke your ruler)." I wasn't tracking. I asked him to repeat his statement. "I'm sowwy but I bwoke yoe wooloe." He pointed to a table in the distance with a broken yard stick laying on top.

Several years ago, long before I arrived, our church had purchased yard sticks with the church's name and information on it as a promotional tool. There were a handful still floating around the church. Evidently this lad found one and played with it, pretending it to be a sword or a light saber, a baseball bat, or something else that only the mind of a five-year-old boy could imagine. In the process of having some fun, he broke the yard stick, splitting it in half.

I smiled recognizing fully what he was saying. I put my hand on his head and said, "It's okay. I forgive you." The boy immediately wheeled about and ran to his grandmother who was in the kitchen. I could hear him say, "He said he foegives me!" I instantly felt a lump in my throat. The folks standing near me that witnessed this precious little moment we're all smiling.

Before we could say anything about it, the boy came running back to me. "Mistoe Pastoe Mawk, I will buy you anothoe wooloe." Now my eyes were selling with tears. I said, with my hand gently back on his head, "You don't have to buy me another ruler. It's okay. We have more rulers." Again, he whirled, ran back to Cynthia and exclaimed, "He said I don't have to buy anothoe wooloe!"

(Cynthia told me later that her grandson did all of that on his own, that there was no prompting from her to come to me and apologize.)

I felt God speak to me. "You just witnessed from my perspective how I see you and how I feel when you come to me in confession. You just got a picture of my grace from my point of view."

If we, being evil, know how to be good to little kids, how much more our Heavenly Father!

I'm thankful for God's mercy and grace.