Tonight, I am extremely proud of my oldest son. And it's not because he played his best at his soccer game tonight (which we still lost 0-2), nor to the fact that he scored so well on his last science test (whereas most of his classmates did not do so well). No, I'm proud because he reflected his creator in a powerful way.
As with every soccer night, we get home and are trying to rush to get the kids in bed before 9 o'clock, (which never happens). After the kids got a bath and had their teeth brushed, we sat down to read the Bible. The kids were getting in their positions when Jay hopped back up and ran over to the books again. I told him repeatedly, “Come here first, J. Come here first.” But he would not listen. He forced my hand, and I had to tell him, “No stories tonight.” He immediately broke down in tears. I expected his mama to be anguished over her sons crocodile tears, but it was Elijah who spoke up after Bible time.
"I would rather go ahead and lose my story time and let J have his stories," he told me.
"You'll take his punishment?" I asked.
He nodded and said, "Yeah."
I confess I teared up a little as I nodded and told him, "Go ahead, Buddy."
Then I sat J down and presented him once again with the Gospel message. But this time, it was in a real-life situation where his brother, in love and out of the desire to please the father, took his place.
"That's what Jesus did for us J. Even though we did bad things and deserve to be punished, he took our punishment so that we could have Grace."
I'm pretty sure neither kid really understand what took place and what part they played in the retelling of the most beautiful story in the entire universe, but I was blessed to have he eyes to see it.
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