Audrey looked up at me, round eyes widened with surprise. “You mean, Adam and Eve didn’t have to eat that fruit from the snake?”

I shook my head, always entertained by the possible discussion in my 1st &2nd grade Sunday School class. “No, God gave them the choice to make.”

She narrowed her eyes into little slits, her nose wrinkling with her scrunched up lips. “I’m just so mad at them.” She folded her arms in front of her chest. “Now we all sin because of them. I don’t like sin. It gets me into trouble.”

Whew…who can relate to poor little Audrey? Sin certainly gets in the way, doesn’t? It gets me into all sorts of trouble. I don’t know about you, but my life would be a lot better off if I didn’t have to struggle with being human so much 🙂

If I don’t end up saying something stupid because of my pride, I’ll say something regretful because of my anger. If I get my feelings hurt, I can let resentment build up into bitterness and slowly unforgiveness saps out my joy. If I become consumed with my own desires and neglect the desires of others, then become frustrated when those ‘others’ don’t follow up with my plans – what’s wrong with me? Sin.

It certainly would be a lot easier if Adam and Eve hadn’t brought sin into the world and genetically passed it on to our generation. (Sigh) We’re perfectly flawed. “Doomed to blindness” as Emma from Jane Austen’s work states.

Fortunately, God has the perfect remedy. His Son.
When we were perfectly broken – God sent a Healer
When we were lost in utter darkness – God sent the Way
When we were dead in our sins – God sent us Life
When our spirits hungered – God sent us the Bread of Life
When our withered hearts, parched by hatred, thirsted – God gave us Living Water
When our souls ached with regret or sorrow – God sent us the Comforter
When we struggled through breath after breath because of our mortal wound of selfishness – God sent us the Great Physician.
When we could see no hope, no future, no goodness in ourselves – God sent us Love.

One of the most beautiful verses in Scripture – which gets to the heart of God’s magnificent plan, is Romans 5:8. “God demonstrates His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Did you get that? God didn’t wait until we were good enough; until we had proven our worth; until we’d told enough people or handed out enough tracts; until we’d shaken Heaven’s gates with our praises or served enough hours in a soup kitchen; until we’d given enough money, spent enough time, read enough Scripture, sang enough songs….because, He knew, we could NEVER be good ‘enough’.

We were hopelessly flawed.
But GOD…
He loved us while we were still sinners
Christ died for us…
While we were still sinners

Revel in that a moment. You’re loved like THAT!
You’re loved even when you fail.
It’s beautiful, amazing, awesome, and remarkable.

This news should cause us to be thankful and strive to honor the One who loves us anyway and always. It should free us from the bondage of ‘good enough’ thinking. It should open our eyes to the wonder of Grace…and therefore help us show grace to others.

What Adam didn’t do (keep God’s law perfectly), Christ did – in our place., even when we didn’t deserve it. Hmmm, because we didn’t deserve it. Wow! What kind of love is that?!?

The kind of love that transforms our ‘good enough’ thinking into grace-filled thinking.

We can rejoice.
We are loved….
Always.