While Jim is vacationing, we are pleased to post this blog from April 2018.

Doug was one of my friends when I was in school at the University of Wisconsin. In the spring of 1970 Paulette and I, together with Doug and his wife, went strawberry picking at a U-Pick farm outside of Madison, Wisconsin. It was a beautiful day, and the berries were abundant, beautiful and sweet; some even made it into my bucket. We talked as we picked and visited with the other pickers, who seemed amused to see two young couples in the field. When we took a break and saw the berries in Doug’s bucket, three of us started laughing so hard we cried. Some of his berries were fine, but some were overripe, many were partially green, and some were totally green. I hadn’t known it, but Doug was color-blind! He never anticipated that he would have trouble picking berries, and once he learned why we were laughing, he laughed as hard as any of us.

We should be thankful that God is color-blind when accepting us into his bucket called the church. He bestows his grace on anyone who believes, regardless of skin color, physical features, or any other kind of characteristic. Paul emphasizes this in Galatians 3:28 where he writes, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” In addition, everyone in his bucket is flawed; they have all sinned. It’s as if He went berry picking and didn’t get a single good berry. Nevertheless, even though flawed, we are all acceptable in His sight. Nothing about us prevents God from loving us unconditionally.

Jim