reconciled

I’m filling in for the 3^rd & 4^th grade Sunday school teacher at church. The class is mostly boys. Noisy ones. This morning I was teaching them about forgiveness. In my perpetual optimism I thought I could teach them a new vocabulary word…early in the morning…when most of them didn’t even want to be there…and when their main focus was on the Minecraft toys they were “secretly” playing with under the table. I told them that the prodigal son was reconciled to his father then had them repeat the big new word “reconciled.”

The littlest one (who hadn’t stopped disrupting the class since he arrived) snickered, then smacked his fists on the table in the manner of Wreck-it Ralph, and said, “wrecking child.” The rest of the boys giggled and parroted, “wrecking child, wrecking child, wrecking child.”

Just in case you are unaware and ever find yourself in a similar situation, let me save you some trouble and let you know that when 8-10 year-old boys get a case of the giggles, you’re just done. Whatever topic you’re working on is over. There is nothing left to do but just move on, which is exactly what I did. Sadly, they left class this morning blissfully unaware they had missed an opportunity to enrich their vocabulary.

As I sat next to that little “wrecking child” in church, I thought about the significance of his senseless, silly words. The Bible says that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. In other words, while I was still a wrecking child – going my own way, messing up my life and everyone around me – Jesus had already sacrificed his life for mine. As If in my sinful state I was worth something. As if he wanted me to be reconciled to him.

The word reconciled implies brokenness. Something that was never cracked doesn’t need to be repaired. Jesus did what he did for people who hadn’t even been born (me, you, our great-grandchildren) because he knew ahead of time that we would be broken, sinful, arrogant, foolish, dangerous, ungrateful, messed up people. He knew I would be a wrecking child. And he chose to love me BEFORE he fixed me.

The 9 year old boy version of that verse would read, “While I was still a wrecking child, Jesus died so I could be reconciled.”

Stop for a moment and relish that thought. Breathe it in. Jesus picked you out. He chose you for himself while you were still a complete disaster. He sees his precious child where the rest of the world would see an utter failure. Bask in that love…but don’t stop there.

Now it’s your turn. Turn that unconditional love toward someone else. Look at the people in your world. Maybe it’s a room of noisy boys, maybe a teenager making bad choices, maybe it’s your boss, maybe a friend who has hurt you, maybe it’s your children or your spouse. Don’t look at them with eyes that see the “wrecking child” they are in the moment. Look at them with Christ’s eyes and love them the way he does – with a love that will stop at nothing to see them reconciled to their Creator.