Falling Short

   Football is often called a game of inches played on a field measured in yards.  Recently I saw a video clip of a Utah State football player making one of the largest goofs in college football history.   You can see the clip here.  The mistake was so narrow that it even went unnoticed by the announcers on TV.   What happened?

   A player for Utah had caught a pass and run it in for a touchdown, but just 1 yard short of the end zone decided to drop the ball.  The referee noticed this and did not signal a touchdown and while the Utah players we celebrating an Oregon player realized the situation and picked up the ball and ran it back 99 yards for a touchdown. 

      The reason I decided to write this blog is not to rub salt into the Utah players wound ( I am sure this will haunt him for years to come) but instead to use this story as an illustration of how we are in God's eyes on our own merits.   Paul says in Romans, "For all fall short of the glory of God...".   Just as the Utah player fell short and it didn't matter to the referee that he had all intentions of scoring a touchdown, the fact was that the ball did not cross the goal line.  Some would say this is knit-picking and close should be "good enough" but that is not how it is in football or in God's world.  

    It's sad to see such effort wasted.  It pained me to watch the players face as he saw what he had done on the TV screen in the stadium.  He messed up and it cost the team a touchdown.   He let down his team, his coach and his school.   God too is pained by our loss.  He is not sitting on the opposite sideline cheering our misfortune.  Instead, he is there sitting next to us on the bench consoling us.  But not consoling like we do here on earth with words like "There there... you'll do better next time" or "We all mess up sometimes.. its ok.."     Instead he has the power to rewrite the history books and the scoreboard.   We look up at the TV screen and we don't see US dropping the ball but instead his own Son , Jesus Christ fumbling the ball at the 1 yard line and taking the punishment for us.

    John writes:  "He who knew no sin, became sin for us"

    That's called the grace of God.