On the List?

We took the little girls to see Drifty's Snowball Soup at the playhouse. Phoebe and Ruby sat anxiously throughout the show for the climax, the appearance of Santa! I felt Phoebe stiffen up as soon as she saw him. She looked up at me, on the verge of tears, and whispered, "I think I'm on the Naughty List, Mommy."

Could she have been thinking about the day she colored herself with a permanent purple marker? Or maybe the night she hid the family-sized Doritos bag under her bed? Using the silverware in the sandbox? Letting the dogs out the front door? Raiding my jewelry box? Re-decorating her closet? Cracking eighteen eggs on the kitchen floor?

"No sweetie, you're not on the Naughty List."

But aren't we all? Shouldn't my name be right at the top?

I don't wipe boogers on my mom's favorite sweater or smack my little sister in the head these days, but sin... I do.

I covet.

I lie.

I yell.

I cuss.

I blame.

I cheat.

It's the ugly truth. Even in my "goodness"... I'm rotten..

Yet, I've been forgiven.

And I wait anxiously for the Perfect Gift that I don't deserve.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. James 1:17

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23

You see, my name is on the list, in the Book of Life, because I believe. I've been delivered from my own sinfulness.

He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. Revelations 3:5

Where is your name?