“And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” Says the Lord Almighty.”
(2 Corinthians 6:8)
I attended grade three-seven at St. Theresa of the Infant Jesus school. In the fourth grade I met my teacher, Candi Masset. She was an instant favorite. I fell in love with her full-figured face, smile, laughter, and her anecdotes.
One of the projects that she assigned to the class of rowdy and incorrigible fourth graders was to answer the question: “Who are you?”
When it came to my turn to stand before the class in my poor fitting school uniform complete with a plaid tie; I said, “I am a boy, a son, and loved by God.” The class was silent and then erupted in laughter. Tears filled my eyes, and I ran out of the room into the hallway.
Mrs. Masset came into the hallway where I was crying, and she hugged me. This is what sealed our relationship as teacher and student.
She said, “you know exactly who you are and whose you are…don’t let anyone tell you different.”
I carried that message for a lot of years and then I grew up and the world looked significantly different than when I was 10.
Life happened and it happened fast, it was an anxiety filled roller coaster of emotions. One minute I was a little kid and the next moment I was graduating from High School. college, and eventually graduate school. Years later I would find my identity as a doctoral candidate and a provisional elder.
Is it possible I forgot about that moment in the hallway with Mrs. Masset?
Had I forgotten that I was a boy, a son, and that God loves me?
We often have short memories when we meet God in other people. We get caught up in the noise and laughter of an incorrigible class of rowdy fourth graders.
We let their laughter and insults build a wall of shame and humiliation. We need those moments with the Mrs. Masset’s in our life. They often are the the verbal presence of God in this world.
“Some days life goes smoothly, and I feel like I’m on point in God’s call. Yet other days, I feel like I fail Him miserably no matter how hard I try. Some days we are stretched thin, and the many roles we fulfill can leave us with a bit of an identity crisis.
Remember who you are and whose you are
Yet, every moment of every day, my true identity never changes—only my acknowledgment of that identity.
On my good days as well as my less than stellar days I am always His child, and nothing separates me from the love of God. I am eternally His. Knowing what God has to say about me helps me remember who I am and that I belong to Him.”Remember who you are…
Remembering the past often takes bricks out of the damns that we have built. The waters begin to flow and there is a refreshing that comes as we are washed over by the waters of the Jordan. These waters remind me of the baptism waters that welcome us into the family of God. Baptism always takes place in the context of community. It is what God does in that moment, and we can’t mess it up. No matter how bad we miss the mark or lie to ourselves, others, and God; God never gives up on us. We are boys, girls and everything in between, we are sons and daughters, and we are loved by God.
That is what Mrs. Masset taught me in that moment in the hallway. I am a boy, a son, and God loves me! Those are the irrefutable facts of the faith that I have professed. Somewhere in my mind I go back to that hallway and feel the embrace of a teacher who loved me unconditionally
Is it possible that God loves me the way Mrs. Masset did?
We need those moments when a mother, grandmother a family friend or a pastor share with us the truth we already know.
When our names were given, they came from our parents who trusted God with our lives. In this season of faith’s perfection, I need to be reminded of Gods grace that continues to move in me through me because of me or despite me.
John 8:32 states that Jesus said, “the truth will set you free.”
Is not it time we started letting God lead us through the Jordan to the promised land?
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