Why God Is A Lot Like Aunt Barb

God is more eager to forgive, than we are to confess.

Frankly that truth pulsates from the cross.  Why “when you were dead in your sins…” Paul notes in Colossians 2:13, “God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins…” (Colossians 2:13). It’s fascinating the word forgave means literally to do something pleasant, to do a favor, to show oneself as gracious, kind and benevolent.   And so contrary to popular perception, God is not in heaven seeking to damn us when we sin; God is in heaven eager to deliver us, issuing amazing grace and favor!

Growing up I had two aunts, Aunt Elva and Aunt Barb, who hosted me for dinner on a regular basis.  Now Aunt Elva, my New York City aunt, was always the formal type.  Why we always ate in Elva’s formal dining room, using the finest china embossed with names like Lenox or Tiffany’s, needing always to be on our best behavior.  I mean ‘heaven help us’ if we spilled juice or dropped food on the floor!  I mean even when we’d apologize, Elva would glare at us; ‘bad boy, bad girl,’ she’d infer.  On the other hand my Aunt Barb, my Fairplay, MD aunt, was not the formal at all.  Why we always ate in Barb’s kitchen, using plastic-ware embossed with names like Red Baron Pizzeria or courtesy of Hoffman’s Chevrolet.   And if we spilled juice or dropped food on the floor, why Barb wouldn’t glare; she’d just laugh.’ ‘I am so sorry Aunt Barb.’ ‘No problem’ she’d reply – ‘I’ll clean it up.  I mean:  you are a ‘Messy Marvin,’ but I love you anyway.  And so rather than feeling like a bad boy, I felt embraced, in spite of my less than perfect, bad behavior. (inspired by Craig Barnes, Body and Soul, Grand Rapids:  Faith Alive, p. 101-103)    

Frankly, I think God is a lot more like Aunt Barb than Aunt Elva.  I mean when we spill something or mess up, God doesn’t glare: bad boy, bad girl!  Rather, as we confess, as we say ‘I’m sorry, God says no problem! I’ll clean it up.  For yes, you are a Messy Marvin, but I’m a Mighty Savior, who in Jesus, the Lamb of God, takes “…away the sin of the world…”  (John 1:29) – absorbing your mess, blotting out your sin -- for on Jesus was “…laid…the iniquity of us all…” (Isaiah 53:6).    

And so yes confess your mess, but anticipate God’s laughter and grace.   For as Elisa Morgan notes, the “God, who sees us in our worst moments, does not [ultimately] measure us by [those moments].” – Elisa Morgan.