When I was a boy, my dad taught me how to shoot a rubber band on my finger like a gun. Talk about big mistakes! When the teachers at school weren’t looking, I went full “desperado” on my friends with my rubber bands and newfound dexterity.
Every once in awhile, I’d get my just desserts when I’d stretch the rubber band back too far, or hold the band out-stretched for too long. The rubber band would snap my hand with a loud crack before leaving a good sized welt.
Oops!
Maybe it’s a stretch (get it?) but I think the idea of a rubber band perfectly encapsulates the exercise of God’s grace within our own lives.
Here’s what I mean:
A rubber band by design can stretch extremely thin under stress within it’s limits; but by that same design, will “rubber band” back together instead of breaking.
Likewise, if we choose to exercise God’s grace within our own relationships, we can choose to “rubber band” back together where without Christ, we would snap apart.
Because of the ultimate grace of Jesus that we observe especially during this Easter season, you and I have the capacity to exercise that same “rubber band” grace with one another.
2 Corinthians 5:16-18 reads this: “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view ... Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:”
So who does the “grace like a rubber band” principle apply to?
Enemies, friends, spouses, co-workers who heat tuna up in the shared microwave, church members who have wronged us, and siblings we haven’t talked to in years. Anyone. Everyone.
You and I can show undeserved favor to those around us when we mess up, fall down, or choose wrongly.
Who do you need to exercise grace like a rubber band with today? If God is impressing a name on your mind, please don’t wait! Reach out to rubber band.
In Christ,
Pastor Gage