Unless You Change...
I love a new school year and seeing old friends and new faces. It’s one of the joys of being a teacher. While on my first recess duty of the year with the Kindergarteners, one cute blond walked up beside me, told me his name, and then sincerely said, “I love you.” I looked down into his sweet eyes and replied with the only adequate reply I could think of and told him that I loved him, too. He skipped away and left me standing there recalling the words of Jesus in Matthew 18:3, “Unless you change and become like little children…”
Someone asked recently where I see God and I thought of that child. I see God in the way children love. I see him in a love that isn’t going to be jerked away if I fail. I see him in a bond that isn’t going to be broken just because I might be. I see him in a relationship that isn’t based on rules but an affection that was established long before I ever took my first breath. I see Him when I see them.
God looks at his broken people and calls us his holy, chosen, and dearly loved. We can take comfort knowing that we have been forgiven and redeemed. Let’s make sure we use what God has given us to bless those around us and may we never forget that He is and always will be enough.
10 For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.
6 Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.” 8 We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. 9 We should not test Christ, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. 10 And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.
11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. 12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! 13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
14 Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.