Deserving of a Home

The other day I was talking to a friend who told me this story . . .

There is a girl who is a senior in college, and she is wrapping up her year with student teaching as she completes her degree in education.  She is a good girl – a smart girl who is hardworking and studious.  She is a great student and will most likely be a great teacher.  This young lady grew up in a Christian home with a southern Baptist preacher for a father.  And she just recently shared the news with him and her mother that she is a lesbian.

Her father kicked her out of the house.

As I heard this story my heart broke for the girl because of the turmoil and fear she must feel on the inside as someone who most likely knows what the Bible says about homosexuality.  And then my thoughts turned to her father and mother who must also be feeling the same feelings for different reasons.

I imagined myself in their position and what I would do if my child who I loved and raised and taught the Bible came home and told me similar news.

I thought about this for a while, and then I imagined Jesus saying this to me.

“Do you deserve a home?  Did you deserve a home all those times you sinned and I poured down grace upon you?  Do you deserve a home now as you continue to struggle with those inner battles and I continue to pour down my grace upon you?  Are you worthy of a home?  To me you are.  That’s why I came and died for you.  To give you a home.”

In this scenario, kicking a child out of the house communicates that she is no longer deserving of a home.  Her sin is too great.  She is too disgraceful.  She is no longer welcome.  It is not as if the rest of the family is in danger or her parents are trying to break a cycle of enabling of a life-threatening behavior.

If this is the case, I should have been homeless a long, long time ago.

As Christians, we must respond to each other – especially our family members and children – in Spirit-led mercy.  We all sin and we all fall short of God’s standard (Romans 3:23).  To take this away from a person is trying to play God to them and nullify the Cross in their life – the life Christ died for.

I am not a parent.  I am not facing this issue in my life right now.  However, I pray in humility that if God blesses us with a child, I will walk in Spirit-led mercy as I raise her, discipline her, and teach her.  And if God does not bless us with a child, then I pray that I will continually be humbled through the experiences around me, that I, too, every day, deserve to be homeless.

The Cross of Jesus is the only thing that makes me worthy of a home.