the asterisk

Source: Flickr (Kerry Campbell)

He was finally at the top of his game–the top of the game. The place he’d worked his entire life to be. Every time his feet touched the diamond of dirt and chalk and grass, he was home. Every swing of the bat gave him power. Every record he set drove him further. Until the routine random screening found a little something in his blood. A little something that gave him extra. A little something that sent him tumbling from the top.

Now old and graying, he knows when his grandchildren ask him to tell them about his glory days, they won’t ask to see his name in the record books. For there next to his name will always be an asterisk.

—-

The child lived to please her parents, longing for their pride, looking for approval in their eyes after every accomplishment. She grew into a woman who worked hard. Brilliant, beautiful.

But all she worked for was forfeited with one wrong decision, one lapse in judgment. One child that filled her with joy but branded her.

Even as she walked down the aisle toward a wonderful man who loved her, with her son beaming at his side, she wondered. Is there a condition to his love? An exception?

An asterisk?

—-

Remember today: There are no ifs, ands, or buts attached to the love of Christ.

Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8: 35-39)

We are His and He is ours. By His blood, we are blameless.

No asterisk attached.