A few weekends ago my son crashed my quiet time early on Saturday morning and in an effort to keep the rest of the house sleeping I offered to take him to the donut shop to buy breakfast for the rest of the family.  Typically, he takes a while to choose what kind of donut he wants so we talked the entire way to the store about what donut he was going to order.  Sprinkles.  However, it turns out I had planned our conversation topic incorrectly.  This time I should not have been preparing him about his donut decision, but the fact that we would be going through the drive thru not dining inside. He is still at the age where a good old fashioned tantrum can be performed.  After several seconds of fussing there was silence in the back seat for about two minutes.  As we drove up to the window his little voice sang out, “Hello, its me…”  I busted out laughing.  Who had been letting him listen to Adele?!

I guess he had realized the moment of donut ordering was about to happen and he wanted to make things right with Mama.  I’ve definitely been in his position before.  I’ve had a tense conversation with someone.   Maybe we’ve disagreed or had a conflict of some sort.  After a period of time I am also drawn to reconcile.  The same should be true of our relationship with God.  Because of the perfect nature of God and the sinful nature of man, our relationship with God is in need of reconciliation. However, He isn’t in the front seat of the mini van waiting for us to initiate an apology or perform some act to make things right.  He has already provided the means to reconcile with Him through Jesus.  Paul explains it in 2 Corinthians, chapter five.

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.  2 Corinthians 5:18-20

For me, the most impactful part of this scripture is that it is not about me and what I can do to reconcile myself to God.  Reconciling with God is about what God has already done for me.  Jesus knew no sin.  Being fully God and fully man, He, by his death on the cross, not by my working towards being perfect, reconciled me to Him.  Perfect, He took the weight of my sin and redeemed me from my imperfection.  Now, because of His love I am reconciled to my perfect Creator and destined to eternal life with Him.  My relationship with God is restored.  He is ready to order me a sprinkle donut, or rather He is ready to offer me opportunities to grow in my relationship with Him so that He will be glorified in me.  Which is good, because I don’t like the sprinkles.

Does this take any weight off your shoulders?  Do you struggle with making things right with God?

Amy