On Our Account

There’s an old Peanuts strip where Charlie Brown and Linus are standing side by side, staring up at a sky full of stars.

“Would you like to see a falling star?” Charlie Brown asks.

“Sure,” says Linus. Then he thinks about it. “Then again, I don’t know… I’d hate to have it fall just on my account.”

It’s a funny line. It’s also a surprisingly honest one.

Most of us know that feeling. We don’t want to be any trouble. We’d rather give than receive. When someone does something costly for us, the first words out of our mouths are, “Oh, you shouldn’t have.”

If I’m honest, I’m far better at giving help than receiving it.

In his book The Parables of Peanuts, Robert Short saw something deeper in Linus’s hesitation. A star did fall on our account.

God came down to us in Jesus. Not because we earned it. Not because we asked. Simply because we are loved. He walked our roads. He went to the cross. And there he showed us the depths of God’s love, a love that even death could not stop.

All on our account.

The first letter of John puts it this way: “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son.” (1 John 4:10)

Today, wherever you find yourself, I pray you’ll let that love land. Not as something you have to repay. Not as something you have to deserve. Simply as a gift, given on your account.

Prayer: Holy God, you hold the whole world in the palm of your hand, and you hold us. Thank you for coming to us in Jesus. When we’d rather not be any trouble, teach us to receive your love. On this Veterans Day, we give thanks for all who have served, many at great cost, on our behalf. Bless them, and show us how we might be a blessing to them. Amen.

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