“Jesus loves all of you, even your zits.”

As WyldLife leaders, our hope and dreams are for kids to experience the love of Christ through our relationships. At times, our middle school friends flip the script and teach us a little more about life with the Lord. Here’s a story from Katie who is a Church Partner at First Presbyterian Church of Harbor Springs. Enjoy!

My middle schoolers and I meet at the local donut shop every week. We grab some donuts, head down to the beach, and talk about Jesus. We were talking last week, and I asked the girls a question to which one of them responded, “Jesus loves all of you, even your zits.” At the time we laughed at this comment, but as I thought about it more, I realized that there was a lot of wisdom here.

Jesus loves us despite the state of our lives. He loves us despite our sin. He loves us in the midst of our sin. He steps into our sinful moments with us, and leads us out. He sees us for who we really are, all messiness included, and chooses to love us anyways. We are deeply loved by the God of the universe.

I really don’t give my middle schoolers enough credit. I convince myself that I am the one helping them be changed, but with moments like this, I remember that God is the one doing the changing. He is molding their hearts, and he’s molding mine as well. My relationship with my WyldLifers is changing me just as much as it is changing them. And for that, I am thankful.