I was trying to think of how to describe my experience of Jesus, really.

Even when I fail, sin, go astray I do not experience anger from Jesus. That is hard to grasp.

And then it came to me. When our daughters were very young and gave (or now grandchildren give) us their art creations, it was often beyond me to figure out what it depicted. But we always thanked them and encouraged them and found something nice to say, about the colours used or something. Now in reality the gift was not much, but our love moved us to choose acceptance rather than judgment or rejection.

That’s like Jesus is to me.

God spends so much more energy accepting us, encouraging us, than looking for excuses to reject us. I have no sense that God carries a black book to record all my sins and then at the end of each day determines how to punish me for not getting life right.

The relationship that Jesus and I have is not broken because I fall short of the target of holy perfection. Jesus carries the full weight of that. The relationship only crinkles when I refuse to be honest. Confession keeps me honest. Jesus keeps the rest.

“God is faithful and reliable. If we confess our sins, he forgives them and cleanses us from everything we’ve done wrong” (1 John 1:9 God’s Word©).

“If the death of his Son restored our relationship with God while we were still his enemies, we are even more certain that, because of this restored relationship, the life of his Son will save us” (Romans 5:10 God’s Word©).

God is Friend not foe, Just not merciless judge, Lover even for losers.

Forget religious theology, doctrinal “truth” and sectarian standards. God cannot be defined or described. Jesus is known in the encounter, and that counters any human demand for conformity to an idea rather than The Ideal.

That’s the real Truth and you meet it in a Person, Jesus Christ, The Way to Life.