Love everlasting

This post is dedicated to my simply amazing junior high life group - I think they teach me more than I teach them most of the time!!

We've been working through a series describing and exploring the week before Jesus' death in church for about a month. We picked up the story at the triumphal entry, discussing his peaceful entry, followed it through his accusing the Pharisees to stop being hypocrites, through being honest and genuine, and this week touched on forgiveness in the form of an intense narrative of Peter's last days with Jesus.

After these lessons, we had discussion as a group of what the girls' had learned in the past few weeks.

A couple of girls presented some incredibly deep thoughts. One in particular described a bit that the pastor had said in his monologue:

"When Peter denied Christ the third time, he said that Jesus looked right at him when he swore to God that he'd never known the man before, and Jesus' eyes weren't full of disappointment, hate, or anger. They were full of love."

I have no words for that. because she captured the essence of grace in that moment. The story that we live every day. We make the wrong choice. We choose to undermine, to not give our best, to look to ourselves instead of to Christ. And He looks back at us, even in the moment when he was bleeding, failing from pain, dying, falling. and He sees his child, His beautiful one. He loves in the midst of betrayal. He extends mercy in the moment of blackest sin. He looks right at us, and there is not one trace of rejection in His eyes.

Sam, you brought it to the table. you opened my eyes, and probably several others. Way to be like Jesus.