Captivated: Streams of Grace

While I don't have any children of my own, I have been blessed with the world's three most amazing nieces. Yes, despite their amazingness, there have been moments where, I have to admit, they weren't perhaps the most angelic of creatures. Often when I would visit in their younger years, there were moments were their mom (my sister) would just look at them, shake her head, sigh a deep sigh, and tell them, "It's a good thing you're cute."

The older I get, the more I realize that, more often than not, most of us probably got off pretty easy for the trouble we caused as young children. Part of that is the result of good parents who realized that holding a two year old and a ten year old to the same standards of behavior is not developmentally appropriate. But I do have to wonder how much the role our parent's love for us had in helping us escape the harshest of consequences.

The reality for all of us is that the moment we have sinned, no matter how big or small we judge that sin to be, we deserved death (Romans 3:23. 6:23). And yet, God chooses not to demand that payment the instant we sin. Instead, he offers forgiveness, the chance to start over, to try again. Every day, countless times a day we fail to love God above all and so, every day, countless times a day, he forgives us and gives us another chance.

The trouble with ranking sin is that we forget that the little sins carry the same consequences as the big sins. We start to disregard the little stuff: "Surely it's no big deal. God wasn't really talking about this little, insignificant, momentary lapse of judgement." The more we tell ourselves it doesn't matter, the less it matters, and the further away from God it pulls us. We forget that sin didn't enter the world through a mass murder or act of great violence. It entered the world through a suggestion, "Did God really say....?"

On the flip side, when we do commit what we deem to be a big sin (stealing, lust, adultery, etc), we forget how big God really is and convince ourselves that there is no way God would ever forgive us. There is no way we are worthy of grace and forgiveness. All hope is lost so we might as well dig ourselves in deeper.

And when we find ourselves in those moments, we would do well to remember the story which defines our Tuesday theme here in 2025. In Luke 23, we join Jesus during his lowest point. The mock trial finding him guilty and deserving death concludes and his is lead away through the streets where he is mocked until his arrives at the place where they will nail him to a cross and leave him to die. To this day, the full details of just how brutal this death truly was still are largely beyond most people's imagination. And in the midst of all his pain and suffering, Jesus doesn't lash out, doesn't condemn, doesn't call down curses upon those who have played a role.

Instead Jesus prays that His Father would forgive those who are tormenting him, "Forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." The last people we would expect Jesus to pray a blessing over are the very people he asks his Father to forgive. And if Jesus could ask God to forgive them, how much more is his ability to offer us forgiveness for our sins?

Check out our Tuesday Theme Verse for 2025!