The Find
I love quirky, one-of-a-kind type things.
If something out there is both hard to find and hard to explain, then chances are, I want it.
To that end, I own my very own African spear, my very own piece of the Berlin Wall, and a bunch of other things that might not be worth a nickel to anybody else, but mean a lot to me. But as much as I might treasure each of those little finds, the best deal I ever got was on something that means more to me than my whole life but didn’t cost me a dime.
Like most of the things I love, it’s a little hard to explain, so we'll start with that.
Before I was ever born, God knew that I wasn’t going to be a good person. In fact, he knew that I was going to be so rotten that the only fair punishment for me was going to be to kill me and send me to Hell. Not fun, but true.
But God is very different than me, and maybe very different than you. Even though He knew all that, God loved us before we ever even existed. So He did this crazy, hard-to-explain thing.
He offered you and me and everybody a whole new story.
Rather than just completing my story of being a failed human being by letting me die and go to Hell, God sent His one and only Son from Heaven to die in my place for my sins. And He did it for free because there is no way I could ever pay Him back.
It’s like God gave me a little card to keep in my wallet that, on one side, is the ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card, and on the other side, is a ticket to a whole new life.
It’s hard to explain, this gift of God. In many ways I feel like a still don't understand it.
But you may remember, hard to explain is only one of my two attributes for the perfect find. The other is that it be hard to find.
And this is where this particular deal takes a very strange turn.
For the last 2,000 years since Jesus came and died for our sins, this news has been called the gospel by the church. It’s been told in more places in the world than probably any other story.
And yet, still to this day—even though it is available to everybody—this gospel is hard to find.
One of the reasons for that is because if the gospel actually were a little card for us to keep in our wallets, it would be the most counterfeited card in history. The world would be ten feet deep in cards of the exact same size and color that tell a different story.
One counterfeit would tell us that the way out of jail is to be as nice as you can in all of the ways you can, and a really good liar in all the ways that you can't. Another would tell us that the real ticket to a new life is a low-interest credit card and a new relationship. Our lives are all full of counterfeit stories that are easy to explain and easy to find.
But as for me, I like one-of-a-kind, non-counterfeit things. True things. Even when they are hard to explain. Even when they are hard to find. So, personally, I am delighted that I have this gospel. This truth that Jesus came to set me free and give me new life with Him forever.
He gave His life for mine, and I accepted the deal.
I don't know what counterfeit cards you're carrying today, but I hope you lay them down and choose this one instead.
