Abundantly Pardoned

Near the end of the movie “Men In Black 2,” Tommy Lee Jones’ character says, “We are who we are, even if we sometimes forget.” I immediately grabbed pen and paper as I do sometimes when watching a movie. After all, sometimes the characters will say something that makes you go, “Wow……” As in this case…I wowed…. 1 John 3:1 a&b tells us, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” Yes, we are children of God, and He lavished His love on us by allowing His Son to die for our sins so that we could have eternal life. Many people on this planet won’t love us, and the actions of many will make us feel as if we aren’t loved. At times like those we forget who we are. We are who we are: God’s children. We are loved.

“My Dancing Family”

I come from a dancing family: my grandmother dancing in her livingroom, my grandfather doing “The Barnyard Shuffle,” my mom dancing to “American Bandstand,” my father doing “the Bath Towel” to make us laugh, my brother dancing top hat and tails for a junior high production, yours’ truly in childhood ballet, “The Twist” and “The Mashed Potatoes” at sock hops and dancing right into my now nearly 55 years of age whenever the mood hits me. My favorite family dance story is the one about my dad. Seems when he was young he was doing “The Jitterbug” with some young lady. Now, in the Jitterbug the man takes his dance partner, tosses her under his legs, lifts a leg over her so he can whirl around and pull her to her feet. Trouble was, my dad accidentally let go of her, thereby causing her to slide across the dance floor by herself. Oh, how I wish I could travel through time! There’s a song about the Lord that goes, “Oh, no, You never let go….” No matter what we go through in our lives, whether JItterbug or crisis, He is holding on to us!