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We really do have to learn to be bad.

There are times when I know that statement above is NOT true… I see the evidence of selfish, sinful, mistrust of their father in all of my kids from nearly their first day of life.

But today with a crowd of kids from 1st through 8th grade, I remembered again, skepticism is learned. Bad habits are learned. Mistrust of our Father is learned. Selfishness is bred by a constant barrage of self-esteem bashing from within and without. We must fight to get what is ours, because we can’t trust anyone else to do it or get it for us… not even Father.

We were explaining the Christmas story to the kids again this morning, and they knew it completely. And my point with adults is that the essence of the story is missed. The pure and insane love that God has for us, and the sheer joy He finds in just loving us is profoundly astonishing. NO ONE should love me like that. I have convinced myself (or been convinced) of my many faults, and know that I am certainly not worth anyone’s life… especially the life of the Life Giver!

But I am. And they are. And the kids already know it.

They have not yet known the emptiness of failure. The lonliness of rejection. The pain of being different or undesireable. At some point, they will experience those things. We are all very good at pointing out the shortcomings in other people, either directly or inferred.

But God does not. His love is so complete and so penetrating to our core, that no shortcoming or failure or handicap or anything at all really… could keep his love from us. Or, keep him from loving us.

We let the world and ourselves convince us that we are not worth loving, but we are.

Jesus said we should become like little children. THEN we will see the Kingdom of heaven. There is purity. There is trust. There is innocence.

That is what we should strive for. To trust him more. To understand the depth of his love and live in the freedom of that. There is where our life is. There is hope. There is peace.

There… is Christmas.