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Sunday, September 9, 2012

the broken egg

today in sunday school, we had a great object lesson, actually two about sin and atonement.
the first was the broken egg.   our teacher showed us a figurine that had a broken arm.   she just pulled the arm off, i would guess it had been broken before.   she asked how would you fix it?   of course, with glue.   i think she had a glue dot on it or something sticking in it to hold it on.   she then just stuck it back on and talked about how when we repent, we have to not just change our ways but do what we can to repair the damage.   then she showed us and egg.   she laid a towel out on the table and broke it into a bowl.   now, she said, "how do we fix the egg?".   uh. . . we don't.   there are some things that we can't repair.   she used a pregnancy as result of sin as an example.    many things that violate not only God's laws but also laws of the land also have some non-repairable results.   basically, there are things that have not just spiritual results but temporal as well.   that means that you can't put the egg back together because you have now changed the container.   the broken egg made me think, though, that it doesn't mean all is lost.   i would use the egg to make cookies, for instance.   a pregnancy may not be the desired result but it will be a blessing to someone.   even if the baby is put up for adoption, it is a blessing to someone.   some sin may lead to legal repercussions.   obviously, jail time or legal fines etc were not in the game plan, but part of the repentance process and still able to take advantage of the atonement.   there are a good many sins that have temporal as well as spiritual results.   things are not as easy had you not sinned in the first place but it is workable.    i think that is always the most important lesson.   it is always workable.   God can always heal the soul and you can return to His presents.   nothing in the world you do can make Him love you less.   nothing makes you unworthy of His love.   you are God's child and He always loves you and wants you to come back to Him.   ALWAYS!    no matter how many eggs you've broken God provides us the other ingredients for the cookies.

this kind of brings us to the second object lesson.   she held up a 20€ bill.   (i'm in germany, so we have euros)   she asked who wanted it.   then she ripped it into 2 pieces.   who wants it now?   well, some people still wanted it because they know the value of it.   they know that it can be turned in at the bank for a new one as long as you have both halves.   (this is true in america as well.)   when we sin, we tear ourselves.   God knows that not only can we be repaired, but we can be made new.   we can just tape ourselves together and try to carry on or we can do the work, the process of repentance.   we can gather the pieces, go to the bank and have ourselves made new through the Atonement of Christ.

as an end note, i would like to stress to you how important it is focus on the Atonement.   talking about avoiding sin is great and talking about the proper use of the Atonement is good as well.   i just want to stress that when talking about sin, the sin part is not the point, the Atonement, being made whole through Christ, that is the important part.   the Atonement is what should be stressed, God's love for us and willingness to make us whole should be stressed.   never, ever, ever think that God's love is lessened, or that Christ's Atonement is too little to bring you back, or that you have lost worth in any way.   God always loves you!   always, forever, no matter what.