By Jaime Nava –
*The following is a play off of Robert Munsch’s 1995 book Love you Forever, which has sold 15 million copies. I do not mean to discount his original intention for the song or his book, but rather provide a theological twist.*
There was a father who had a son. When this son was just a tiny baby, he was baptized at church. The father would look at his son and say, “I’m with you forever, even though you’re a sinner. He bore your transgressions, the Kingdom to bring.”
That little baby grew, and grew, and grew, and grew, and grew, and grew until he was sixteen-years-old. He squandered his privilege. He would drive around with his friends VROOM. They ditched school and smoked pot together. He even stole his mother’s watch and sold it to a pawn shop! CHU-CHING! Sometimes his family would say, “This kid is driving me craaazy!”
But each and every day the Father would look at His child and say, “I’m with you forever, even though you’re a sinner. He bore your transgressions, the Kingdom to bring.”
That sixteen-year-old, it grew, and it grew, and it grew! It grew until it was thirty-years-old. He stayed at different people’s houses until they kicked him out. OOF! He started drinking at ten in the morning every day. GLUG GLUG GLUG. Someone is banging on the door. Uh oh, it’s Five-O. He tried to run away but that night went to sleep in custody. CUH-CHINK! The officers who arrested him would sometimes say, “That guy is driving me craaazy!”
That night the Father looked down on him and said, “I’m with you forever, even though you’re a sinner. He bore your transgressions, the Kingdom to bring.”
That deadbeat, he grew. He grew and he grew and he grew and had moved all the way to the worst part of town. Almost every night he would be hungry. Sometimes he could bum a smoke off someone and get a bite to eat at the food place at that church. Most nights he slept under bridges or waaay behind the church that fed him. Some people in nice cars would see him carrying his things in trash bags and say, “That guy is driving me craaazy!”
The Father once again looked down on him and said, “I’m with you forever, even though you’re a sinner. He bore your transgressions, the Kingdom to bring.”
Finally, the man stopped growing. People didn’t know his full name and he didn’t even have a wallet. They cremated him, and eventually everyone forgot about him. You may wonder what happened to his eternal soul. Can this man be forgiven?
The Father has been watching you. What sin of yours in unforgivable? The Father’s radical grace is yours right now in the Son. You need to know that there is no depth that Jesus Himself has not experienced (Hebrews 4:15-16). You cannot out-sin God’s grace. We know we are marked by God in our baptism. God is with you forever, even though you’re a sinner. Christ bore your transgressions, the Kingdom to bring.
