Nothing convinces me otherwise. Not the pleasures of life, nor the threats of death, no angelic or demonic power, not my past and certainly not my future, no destructive powers—nothing can separate me from God’s love found in Jesus our Lord. —Romans 8:38 (King Jimmy Translation)
“The Right Solution”
One of the benefits of retirement is spending time with the grandkids. I enjoy picking up our ten-year old granddaughter, Kennedy, after school and staying with her until her mom or dad came home.
Note: Little did I realize how my racing career would help me. Mothers battling for position in line to pick up the kids makes the Daytona 500 look like a Sunday drive.
After Kennedy takes a short break to unwind from the pressures of the fifth-grade, we review her homework. One afternoon, her teacher sent home pre-test questions in history and science to answer.
“This is your lucky day, Kennedy,” I said. “I’m gonna help you with these questions.” Your humble Aggie scribe wanted to show Kennedy that her writer grandfather was smarter than a fifth-grader.
“Uh . . . okay . . .” She avoided eye contact. Her voice trailed off. “I . . . guess it’s . . .okay.”
We each answered the questions and then compared the results.
Concerning Columbus discovery of the New World:
Where was Columbus trying to reach when he discovered the New World?
- Kennedy: India
- Jimmy: Cleveland
Name three artifacts archeologists discovered that Columbus brought to the New World?
- K: Bible, gun powder, books
- J: Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Rush Limbaugh
What caused the death of thousands of natives after Columbus arrived in the New World?
- K: Their immune system could not fight off the diseases the Europeans brought.
- J: Global warming.
Concerning Science
What is a mixture?
- K: Two substances that are combined but are not dissolved and can be separated.
- J: A group of people attracted to each other and meet after work for drinks.
What is a solvent?
- K: A substance [liquid] that will dissolve another substance
- J: That stuff they put in margaritas that make you want more than six.
Describe a solution.
- K: A solution is a liquid in which a substance has been dissolved and the substances cannot be separated, like sugar in tea.
- J: Sucking in my stomach to make my chest look bigger, turning me into a chick magnet around women.
“Oh, I like your answers much better,” Kennedy said. “I’ll turn them in.”
“That’s great, honey,” I had to wonder, though—She wasn’t being sarcastic, was she?
Her pre-test questions caused me think of another solution to a seemingly insurmountable problem.
God created a perfect world. He took time to personally form his most majestic creation, man, from the dust of the ground. God breathed into man his breath, his spirit, and man became a living being. Then God outdid himself: he created his most exquisite being, woman. Adam was never the same, constantly sucking in his belly.
Adam and Eve lived in perfect harmony in the Garden of Eden. Every day, they and God hung out, delighting in each other’s company, living in absolute freedom. Fear, doubt, shame, prejudice, bigotry, pride—all consequences of sin—were nonexistent.
God gave Adam only one commandment: “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (Genesis 2:7) [emphasis mine]
Wouldn’t you know it? Adam couldn’t follow God’s only rule. The devil duped Adam and Eve into believing that they would be like God if they ate the forbidden fruit.
Big awakening. Big disappointment.
God cannot tolerate any sin, no matter how trivial it may seem to us. All sin is major to a holy and righteous God. In his sovereign justice, all sin must be punished.
When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, their relationship changed. Man immediately realized the consequence of disobedience. God’s spirit, which lived within him, was no longer there. This separation from God was the death God warned them about. Man needed a solution to escape his fallen state and get back to God. As his spiritual consciousness deadened, he realized how hopeless he was.
Although God is the righteous judge, he is also a merciful Savior. He had a solution to man’s sin problem. He would lay all sin on sinless Jesus and then pour out his holy wrath on his only Son. Man would swap his sin for Jesus’ righteousness. In return, Jesus would take all the punishment for mankind’s sin on himself.
Did you get that? God’s solution for sin was for Jesus to absorb all sin.
The world’s sins.
My sins.
Your sins.
To prove Jesus paid the price for sin, God resurrected him to life on Easter Sunday. When we place our faith in Jesus, we become one with him. Like Kennedy’s example of a solution is tea or coffee in water cannot be separated, nothing can separate us from Christ love. God promises that nothing—not troubles, hardships, persecution, homelessness, threats of violence, lies and false accusations—nothing will separate us from God’s love. (Romans 8:35) How comforting is this promise? When the Devil throws everything at us trying to make something stick, he fails to separate us from Christ’ love.
Now that is the right solution.
Lord, may we walk confidently in faith and be bold to share your message of grace, knowing nothing will ever separate us from your love.
Stay close to Jesus.
Jimmy
P.S. Give examples of substances dissolving to make an irreversible solution.
K: Tea, coffee, salt dissolving in water
J: The Dallas Cowboys offense dissolving trying to win a playoff game.
Jimmy Eskew © 2017
THANKFUL 
Leave a Reply