The Marker Cap, By Hillary-Beth

The Marker Cap

By Hillary-Beth Koenig

"The lid on this marker is hard to get back on, and it's even hard for me, and I'm a lot bigger than you," I told a little 2 and a half year old. She laughed and said, "Yeah!"
I still felt bad, because she is a little disabled, and I didn't want her to think it was her lacking. So, I said, "It's just hard to get back on so it's not just you" and she got real serious and said, "Why?"
I didn't know why... what did she hear when I said that? So I just told her, "Because it is so tight, too tight."
Sometimes I feel like life is like getting that marker cap back on.
I can try several different ways, and I still don't have the strength to do it on my own.
I watched as this little girl looked inside the marker cap to make sure it was the right end she was trying. See, she understood a lot about how it was supposed to work.
Sometimes I think I get life.
But then the cap won't go on still yet.
The only one who can do it, is Christ!
Here's a good example from a sermon I just listened to. The pastor was talking about, "How do I get God's acceptance and approval? How do I became clean before God?"
So many people try to make themselves clean by themselves; they try to do good things, in hopes of outweighing the bad things. They try to make up rules that make them different, in hopes that they won't do bad things to begin with. But they can never be perfect. Have you tried to be perfect, thinking God will accept you if you are just good enough? Like the little girl, you just aren't strong enough to keep a cap on your life.
But God knows this! So He's made the way through Jesus' death and resurrection. Jesus died for our sins, and was raised back to life by God's power so that we can live eternally with God.
What does that mean for you?
Stop trying to get the cap on, and give it to God; it's as good as done.