The other morning my oldest son, Seth, got ahold of one of his Bible story books and opened it up to look through the pictures. It was the same story he had picked it out the night before - the story of David and Goliath. I had read it to him unsure of his understanding of the concept of good guys and bad guys at such a tender age and tried keeping it as G-rated as possible.
Seth went to the picture where Goliath laid defeated on the ground and David was celebrating the victory. "Scary ouwww!" he said with a sad tone as he pointed to Goliath.
Since giants aren't in in his vocabulary just yet, Seth used the term he uses for anything mean looking or intimidating: "Scary".
Apparently, Seth was feeling pretty bad about this scenario. It just didn't seem ok to him that "Scary" was experiencing an ouwy. His heart went out to the big hairy giant lying on the ground.
And he didn't just say it once and move on, he kept saying it over and over: "Scary ouww!" And every time he said it he would look at me as if either asking for an explanation or wanting me to sympathize over the fallen giant with him.
Honestly, I felt stumped...I didn't know what to say! I couldn't tell him "Scary" was going to be ok, because that wasn't true.We all know it didn't go well for Goliath!
Then it kinda hit me: that's God's heart!
The Bible is full of references to support this notion of bad guys getting second chances. It's called the Gospel/the Good News.
God doesn't want any to perish but His desire is that we all turn to Him. In story telling terminology, that would mean He desires a happily ever after for all of us.
"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." 2 Peter 3:9
"For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16
I was reminded of how many "Scaries" are out there and how we can so quickly wish them ill. Yes, sometimes it's our sense of justice that rises up and that's not a bad thing, but let us not forget that God's higher way, or in other words, preferred way, is that all repent, and find forgiveness and salvation in Jesus Christ.
Truth is, it's easier for me to believe that Jesus would die for someone like me, who's not as bad as the Goliath's of our world. It's easy to forget that we all share same fallen nature. We all have the makings of Goliath is us.
When we start to minimize our sin and maximize everyone else's, we will start loosing God's heart for the world which will lead us to becoming comfortable, callused, and self-righteous.
Believe me, I've been there, done that....still do.
But I don't want to stay content with just seeing Jesus as my personal Saviour and loose sight of the bigger picture. His salvation is beyond just you and me. Not to disregard the importance of making it personal, let's just not leave it at that.
Let's not underestimate the magnitude of His love and the power of His redemption reaching out to all mankind.
I love that God would use my two year old son's compassionate heart to remind me of His heart and how His salvation was meant for all, even the scariest of "Scaries".