I have a young friend named Levi. He’s says and does some really neat things. Levi is very spiritually attuned and he really wants to know about the Lord.
The other day, Levi drew something on the whiteboard we have in what we call Main Street Theatre, and he wanted me to see it. This is his drawing:
Now it’s kinda hard to see at first, but Levi told me that it’s a bulldozer with God’s people in it (GP) and they are pushing the Devil’s people (DP) into the Devil’s hole (DH).
I said: “Wow, Levi, that’s interesting. Who are the devil’s people?”
He said: “All the bad people.”
“So they are kinda like a dirt pile, huh?” I was trying to get off of the devil’s people language at first, but he had it right… almost.
“Yeah,” he said.
I then asked Levi if I could mess with his mind a bit (I didn’t want to discourage him, so I asked) and his drawing. He said, “Sure.” Levi’s always up for anything.
I took the blue whiteboard marker and crossed out the Devil’s people pile and put Jesus’ name there. I said: “This is the mind blowing part, Levi. Jesus took our place on this dirt pile, this devil’s people pile. He became the devil’s person so that we wouldn’t be the devil’s people anymore. We think we aren’t the ‘bad people’, but we are in that dirt pile, too. You and I, Levi, are in that devil’s people pile. We deserved to be pushed by God’s bulldozer into the devil’s hole, but Jesus took our place. He who knew no sin became sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Levi was scrunching his nose at this point. He does that when he’s thinking.
“Isn’t that amazing, Levi,” I asked, “that God sent his very own Son to take our place, to be the devil’s people for us (the cross), to be pushed into the devil’s hole (the grave, some would say hell itself), and yet for him to come back to life both defeating sin and death?!”
At this point Levi’s eyes got real wide as if he realized that he was one of the devil’s people and Jesus took his place.
“You see, Levi, we think that we are good and that we are on God’s side. But we’re not. We are bad. And until we realize how bad we are, how much we have offended and hurt God, we don’t realize that we need God to step in and fix us. Isn’t that amazing that he bulldozed his own Son instead of you or me? Jesus took the place that you and I deserved. Isn’t that amazing? That’s what God’s grace means: getting something we don’t deserve. And you know how we talk about ‘The Gospel’ each week in Main Street? This is God’s Gospel, God’s good news to us. Jesus took our place.”
Levi was pumped! His drawing had just shared the Gospel!
I asked if I could take his picture in front of the drawing (I cropped him out for privacy sake). He was ecstatic. He wanted me to send the picture to his Mom’s computer. And so I emailed it to his Mom’s “computer” right on the spot.
