10:45 PM
The kids were listening to an episode of Adventures in
Odyssey as they went to sleep tonight. In the bumper, the emcee said, “God
gives grace and mercy to his children, even when they don’t deserve it.” I don’t know if that’s a helpful thing to
talk about—the part about being deserving. I don’t think God thinks about who
deserves what at all. I’m pretty sure he
doesn’t actually. I imagine this scene going on in heaven. There’s St. Peter.
He’s like God’s administrative assistant. And St. Peter keeps parading these
prayer requests into the throne room of the Almighty. And he says, “Here’s
someone praying for healing, but they don’t deserve it.” And then he says, “This guy is asking for
forgiveness for having a prostitute, but he doesn’t deserve it.” And, “This lady wants forgiveness for being a
prostitute, but she doesn’t deserve it.” And then another time he says, “This
couple is asking for you to make a way for their kids to attend a private
Christian school, but they don’t deserve it. And this woman is praying that her
child doesn’t starve to death in the famine, but she doesn’t deserve it. And
this boy is praying for his mom to come to church with him, but he doesn’t
deserve it.” And somewhere in all that,
God interrupts St. Peter and says, “Ok Peter, let me ask you something. Does
anybody deserve to have their prayer answered?” And Peter says no. But then he
has a second thought and says, “Well, yes, there is one person who does.” And God asks him who that is. “It’s Jesus,”
says Peter. “Ok,” says God. “So, I understand that Jesus deserves everything he
wants, but he and I are one, and we don’t run our prayers through you. So is
there anyone in your list that is gonna deserve anything from me?” Peter says no. Then God says, “Right. So, I just want you to
drop the whole topic of desserts. Nobody deserves anything anyways, and besides
that I’m not even thinking about that as a category until you bring it up. So
just stop bringing it up.” So Peter goes
back to what he’s doing. “Ok Father here’s a guy who’s beating his chest saying
‘have mercy on me a sinner’, but he doesn’t…I mean…how do you want to handle
this?” And God says, “Give it to
him. I love that guy.” And Peter starts to say “BUT HE DOESN’T
DESERVE IT!” but then he catches himself and bites his tongue. But it’s still bugging Peter. He says, “But
isn’t this an important category? Isn’t the whole justice thing important?
Isn’t it important to evaluate who deserves what?” And so God says, “I have
already evaluated everyone. When you keep evaluating people, you keep hoping
for someone who actually does deserve to have their prayer answered—it’s like
you are still hoping for another Jesus.” And then Peter gulps real hard, and he
asks God for help in his unbelief. And
then he asks God, “So you never want me to use the word deserve when I talk
about a prayer request ever again?” And
God says, “No, I never want you to use that word ever again for anything. Just stop saying it, please.” (In my imagination,
God is polite like that, saying please and all.) So maybe Peter could pass this on to the
Adventures in Odyssey people, so they would stop saying it, too. It’s not that “God gives grace and mercy to
his children, whether they deserve it or not.” It’s just that “God gives grace
and mercy to His children. That’s how He
is.”
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