This week, like most weeks, was a week filled with good news...and sad. I saw a story about a 100 year old teacher who isn’t quite ready to retire. I saw wedding pictures that made me a little misty eyed and received daily photos of our 2 week old nephew from New York. My grandmother and father-in-law both spent time in the hospital and the grandmothers of two of my good friends died. It’s part of this life we live--the ups and downs and all arounds, isn’t it?
Through these moments--both the happy and the sad--I take comfort in the promise before us in 1 John 3: See what the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God. Wow. This is an amazing promise. We are children of God. We are wrapped in God’s love, held in God’s light, given the promise of new life in Christ. Now. Not in the distant, far-off, unknown future, but now. Today. And forever.
The community to which John wrote, not unlike our own, struggled to figure out what it meant to live in a world where we are simultaneously children of God (Lutherans like to say saints) and people who still turn away from God (ie sinners). If we’re children of God, we can live like that now, John says. There’s no need to wait. Not a single one of us is perfect. We can’t be. We will sin. It’s what humans do. But I think John is trying to remind those people to whom he wrote so long ago that they don’t have to wait to live into that incredible, amazing identity of child of God. We can hear that message loud and clear today, too.
You are child of God. Period. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Whether you are two or twelve or eighty-seven or one hundred and four. You are a child of God. Name it. Claim it. See the beauty and grace in it. You are a child of God. Now. Today. And forever.
For a couple of weeks, I’ve seen this video floating around on Facebook. But I didn’t actually watch it until earlier this week. “Caine’s Arcade” tells the story of a little boy with a big imagination who creates a cardboard arcade in his dad’s auto-supply store in LA. His first customer happened to be a film maker who asked permission to make a short film about the arcade. “Well, it’s kind of a joke,” said his dad, “you’re his only customer.” The filmmaker set about changing that. Using social media, he created an event during which tons of people came out to play at Caine’s arcade. It is SO worth the 10 minutes it takes to watch it.
Now, I don’t know anything about Caine’s family’s religious background, or the beliefs of the filmmaker or any of the people who came out that day to play, but here’s what I do know. In their faces, I saw reflections of children of God. I saw awe and wonder and creativity in Caine and kindness, generosity, and childlike playfulness in the folks who lined up to play. I saw a whole bunch of children of God, throwing away assumptions about perfection and convention and embracing life. They laughed and smiled and cheered. And the smile on Caine’s face when he sees the line was precious and heartwarming. My husband and I both got a little choked up watching it. On that day, a whole bunch of people in LA embraced life. And their joy is contagious. The video has been viewed over 2 million times on YouTube. That’s a lot of God’s children who saw a promise of new life, even though they might not have even realized it. But I bet they realized that they saw joy and goodness and grace. And that, my friends, is a glimpse into being a child of God.
This world is crazy. Sin makes a big mess of a beautiful thing. There’s no question that we all fall short. We turn in on ourselves. We turn away from one another. We think we can do it on our own and turn away from God. And God gets that. And loves us anyway. In spite of the messes we make, God calls us God’s children anyway.
I try to grasp this concept, but it’s hard. And that’s the thing. So much of God is pure and complete and utter mystery. We can’t understand how God would see a mess and call it a masterpiece. We can’t understand how God can hear all of our prayers or love us all or give us life everlasting, but we trust that God does. We trust, in this Easter season, and in every season of our lives, that God is constantly at work making all things new. That God is, somehow, working in and through and around us. That God knows us and loves us and calls us by name.
See what love the Father has give us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.
Amen.
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