To do the work needed on our vehicle, part of the dash had to be removed. Jeff was the technician that did the work. He was quite personable.
When I picked up the vehicle, Jeff wanted to point out that he may have cracked the dash in the process of removing the plastic. He confessed he was not sure if he caused the crack, but he made it clear he wanted to be honest with me about the fact that when he removed the dash, he may have cracked it.
Impressed by his transparency, I asked him what made him so passionate about being honest with people. He said, “When I was young, my dad left my family, and I never knew why. One day I woke up, and dad was gone. I decided then that I would always tell the truth and be honest with people. I work hard to instill this in my son. I tell him everything.”
He went on to say he went to church one time and decided he would not ever go back. Looking down at his arms, he said, “When I went to church, I was told by someone that I would go to hell because of my tattoos.” I apologized to Jeff for his experience and affirmed him as a person deeply loved by God.
The beauty about Jeff is that he is experiencing prevenient grace. His passion for being honest is nothing short of the presence of a loving Father, wooing Jeff into a relationship. The honesty Jeff longed for but never received from his dad kept him from experiencing intimacy. Yet his pain, which flows out of a lack of intimacy with his earthly dad, has awakened something deep inside him, resulting from a Triune God who relates to one another with complete honesty and transparency.
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit share an intimacy beyond our ability to fully understand. They never hold secrets, try to hide the truth from one another, or attempt to mislead one another. Made in the image of this Triune God, Jeff is experiencing what it is to be an image-bearer of a Godhead who is relational beyond our wildest imagination. The intimacy shared inside this fellowship is deeply embedded in our DNA’s design, and we are unable to run from the architecture of our design – people desirous of intimacy and relational connection.
Leaving, I smiled and thanked God for the relentless pursuit of Jeff. As he was being honest about a small crack in our dashboard, God was present at that moment with us. Jeff was being romanced by God in ways Jeff may not fully understand in his cognition. Yet, Jeff is being wooed because he cannot escape the divine dance as he experiences prevenient grace.
This post was written by John Comstock. You can find his FB page, The Discipleship Place, here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheDiscipleshipPlaceGroup
