I must confess before beginning that the title is not entirely accurate. I am extremely proud to call my daughter and my son my children. They make me proud in many ways. However, there was a recent conversation that I had with one of my children that gave me pause.
A few weeks ago, I took my daughter to her room for bedtime. We sat on the edge of the bed together, as I asked her about her day. Then we held hands and prayed. In the prayer I said “thank you Father for sending Jesus to take away our sins.” When we said amen, I looked at my daughters’ face, and all I saw was confusion. The following is our conversation word for word.

Me: What is it Jacy?
Jacy: Daddy, Jesus took our sins away?
Me: Yes honey, He did. He gave us a choice to let him take our sins away, so we don’t have to carry them anymore.
Jacy: (following much thought in a long pause) Daddy, I want my sins back!

Not my proudest moment.

This conversation brought me to one of my favorite accounts in scripture. We find it in Mark chapter 5. It is the account of the demon possessed man. This man didn’t have one or two but MANY demons inside him. He was strong enough to snap chains, and crazy enough to not wear clothes and cut himself with rocks. Then, he met Jesus, and his whole world changed.

After casting the demons out of this man, he was “clothed and in his right mind.” He wanted to follow Jesus (wouldn’t you?) This man turned and went into the city and according to verse 20 he began to proclaim all that Jesus had done. My favorite part of this Biblical account is what the crowds reaction was to him. The Bible says “everyone marveled.”
I have often asked why? Why did they marvel? Sadly I do not believe it was just the words he used. You see many men before and after him have proclaimed Jesus and sadly, people (generally) don’t marvel when they hear about Him. Rather, I would submit that everyone marveled because they knew who this man used to be. A sinner, demon possessed, naked, and violent. Then they saw who was standing before them. A preacher, clothed, in his right mind, speaking about Jesus. The transformation was so radical, so undeniable. They knew that the preacher standing before them had met a powerful man, the Son of God.
Do people marvel when they look at you? Not because of your good looks, but because they see a change in you? Are you different now then you were before being baptized into Christ? You see, truly meeting Jesus demands that your life be changed. Yet, sadly, many times we are childish. Many times, we just simply, want our sins back. As much as I cringed when my daughter said what she said, I wonder how much more our heavenly Father cringes as he watches His children live the words that Jacy spoke, as with our lives, we simply say “Father, we want our sins back.”

“O God, thank you for sending Jesus to take away the sins of the world. We realize Father we could not do this on our own. Thank you for taking our sins away. Father we don’t want our sins back. Help us to stay strong, to stay focused, and to fall in love with you everyday. In Jesus name, amen”