¹⁶ So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! ¹⁷ This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

¹⁸ And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. ¹⁹ For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. ²⁰ So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” ²¹ For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Dear God, we have done such a bad job of preaching the Gospel. I have done such a bad job of preaching the Gospel. Over the last 150-200 years in America, we focused on “fire insurance.” “If you died tonight, do you know where you would go?” It’s still so “me” focused. It’s not about being in a loving relationship with you. Communing with you like we did in the garden. It’s about making a deal with you: Okay, God. If I jump through the hoops you prescribed then I get my get out of jail free card, right?

Paul never seemed to go there. Paul was all about this relationship with you. Communing with you as when Eve and Adam were in the garden. Before the fall. In these moments when I’m in prayer. Even right now. I have the same access to you they did. Yes, the world crowds in. Yes, my heart is corrupt. Yes, my theology isn’t 100% accurate. Yes, I don’t have complete understanding. BUT I am here with you in this moment. Communing with you. Praying to you. Loving you. My wife and I were talking about the Catholic Rosary last night. She is listening to a Rosary in a Year podcast that with Fr. Mark Mary Ames, and he was talking about entering this space that Eve and Adam occupied. Pre-fall. You created us good. The good is still in there. And this pre-fall space Eve and Adam occupied is available to me right now.

I have found a pearl of great price, but I don’t have to be selfish about it. I don’t have to hide it from anyone. It is available to all of us. My job is supposed to be to let others know about the pearl I found and offer it to them. And the pearl isn’t heaven. The pearl is relationship. The pearl is entering that pre-fall space on earth and then continuing it in heaven. The pearl is pursuing you with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, loving my neighbor as myself, and then experiencing amazing fruit that comes from communing with you. Frankly, the portrait we’ve been given of heaven, with streets of gold and mansions, is so small and insignificant compared to that.

Father, help me to share my pearl with others. Help me to know how to pursue you throughout the day. Help me to be completely with you in moments like this. Thank you for what Jesus did to recreate this sacred space between you and me through his life, death, and resurrection. I give you all my worship and all my praise.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen