My daughter stared at me with a stoic stare, “No, I’m not,” she said, “I’m awful.”
Fear ran through my veins hearing these words come out of my six-year-old girl’s mouth. Her response to my praise, “You’re such a good girl, do you know that?” made my mind swirl with what I should say next. Do I argue with her to convince her that she’s not awful? Do I reprimand her with, “I never want to hear you talk about yourself like that again!” Or maybe I dig deep to get to the source of who or what put these thoughts in her head?
“Really? Why are you awful?” That’s what I came up with.
“Because of my sin,” she replied matter-of-fact.
At this point my fear turned to gratefulness, as crazy as that sounds. I knew I needed to do some work to help her understand that her sin is awful but that she is good, however, one of my prayers for my daughter has been that she recognizes that she is a sinner. I knew that until she came to the realization that she’s a sinner she couldn’t come to the realization that she needs a Savior.
When we moved into Rodgers Manor, as I like to call it, not only did we inherit a Victorian home but about an acre or so of gardens came with it. It’s really beautiful. Two years ago we moved here, and up until now, I haven’t wanted anything to do with gardening. What you need to know about me is that I’m a city girl. Like growing up and even until I got married I lived where there was a grocery store a mile to my right and another grocery store a mile to my left. My garden was a concrete jungle. I kid you not. Getting my hands dirty even to gain something as beautiful as hydrangeas and roses wasn’t worth it to me.
This year something changed. I don’t know what exactly, but I regularly weed and prune. I even like it, including the dirt caked under my nails. The girls help me weed the gardens, and this is where I took it with my daughter.
What is your favorite flower?” I asked her. She told me a pink rose. I’m guessing that’s the only flower she knows well. “Imagine that you are a tiny rose seed. God plants you deep in the soil. He takes care of you, giving you water and sunlight. You grow taller. Your pink pedals stretch wider and wider. God looks at you and thinks that you are the most beautiful rose He’s ever seen.
Then something starts to grow all around you and up your stem. It tries to strangle you and take you over so that you’re no longer beautiful. These are the weeds, like the weeds in our garden. Weeds are like sin in our lives. Sin wants to take over our lives leading us further and further from Jesus.
But Jesus is like our Master Gardener. When Jesus died on the Cross He made it possible for all those weeds, all that sin, to be cut away – just like we pull the weeds out of our garden and cut them away from our flowers.
But what happens in our garden? Do the weeds stay away? No, they come back. And our sin comes back, too, because we have a sin nature. Just like we can’t get rid of the weeds in our garden forever, we won’t be perfect and without sin, until we get to heaven.
However, this is the good news – Jesus’ death on the Cross makes it possible for us to one day be perfect with Him in heaven. And until then? His blood covers us in righteousness. So, sweet girl, you are not awful. Your sin is awful just like my sin is awful. But you are very, very good. Jesus looks at you and smiles. You’re His beautiful rose.”
Yes, our sin is awful, and apart from Jesus, we are awful people. But there’s Good News … this Easter meditate on Jesus’ blood literally covering your body. This is His blanket of protection over us which makes us righteous and new in His eyes. Weeds will always come, but Jesus’ blood allows them to be removed. Then, seeing Him face-to-face in heaven one day will make us completely holy as He is completely holy.
As I tell my girls, when Jesus was being nailed to that Cross, He was saying your name. He was saying each name of every person who ever had lived and ever would live on this earth. Praise be to God!
This post contains affiliate links. Please see my privacy policy here.
