A few days ago I posted a devotion called What does Jesus mean TO YOU?  At the very end I mentioned that I would return to tell you what Jesus means to me.  Well…here I am and here is my answer:

Growing up I was a fairly well behaved kid (my mom might have a different idea than that).  I don’t think I did anything out of the ordinary.  I got into trouble like any boy growing up.  I was mean to my sister.  I was late for curfew.  I would forget to take out the garbage when I was asked (told) to.  I was your typical, everyday kid.

When I got my driver’s license I got a little more daring.  I think that was due to the fact that I got my license before a lot of people in my class and that my dad was a car dealer.  This meant I got to drive some pretty nice cars.  So I needed to impress people in order to keep my "friends".  But it did not take me long to figure out that there was very little I could do in a small town (population 1,500) without my parents finding out.  My parents seemed to have eyes everywhere.

I was outside a neighboring town and got pulled over by a cop.  I guess he did not like the fact that I passed him doing just over 60 mph.  Luckily I did not get a ticket; the cop just chewed me out for about 15 minutes.  The next day my mom said something about that incident.  I sat there stunned wondering how she found out.  It did not take me long to figure out that one of the people in the car was the daughter of my mom’s best friend (no need to say anything more).

From that point on I needed to be careful, but it was never good enough.  Mom and Dad always seemed to find out (and to this day they still won’t tell me their secret.  Maybe after I have a kid of my own they might open their vault).  But here is the kicker, my parents still let me go out on the weekends and my dad still gave me nice cars to drive (except when I ran into a pole at the gas station and my dad demoted me from a mint condition 1986 Monte Carlo to a piece of crap 1974 Ford Zephyr with a radio worth more than the car.  I guess I deserved it.).  My parents gave me chance after chance even though I did not deserve any one of them (I eventually moved up from the Ford Zephyr).  I took advantage of my parent’s forgiveness, but they still loved me.  I never understood that.  I thought they were being foolish and naive.  Little did I know.

Why does Jesus mean so much to me?  It is pretty simple…I am still that kid who takes advantage of his Father’s love.  I need Jesus because without Him I am lost.  I don’t like sinning like I do.  Like Paul tells us in Romans I do the things I do not want to do and don’t do the things I want to do.  Jesus gives me a second chance and a third and a fourth and so on and on and on…  Jesus loves me beyond measure.  Jesus forgives me beyond any end. Like my parents, Jesus is NOT foolish and naive.  Jesus just loves me a whole lot so much so that He went to the cross FOR ME/US.  That is hard to understand and I don’t need to understand.

That is why Jesus matters to me so much.  His amazing grace and love makes me want to work hard to do want I should, not to earn Jesus love, but because Jesus deserves my best.  I regret a lot of things I did growing up but thank God for forgiveness, because without it I can’t imagine the kind of world we would have. 

Thank you God for putting up with me.  Thank you God for sending your one and only Son to die for me.  Thank you God for loving me.  Thank you God!  Amen! -EDH-