How does God accept us? I know how he accepted me. I was a twenty-year-old troublemaker on a downhill path. I’d spent five years claiming to be God’s son on Sunday mornings and buddying with the devil on Saturday nights. I was a hypocrite: two-faced, too fast, and self-centered. I was lost.

But when I finally grew weary of sitting in pig slop, I got wind of God’s grace. I came to Jesus, and he welcomed me back. He didn’t gloss over the self-centered Max I had manufactured. He didn’t accept my sinful behavior. But he accepted me, his wayward child. He accepted what he could do with me. He didn’t tell me to clean up and then come back. He said, “Come back, and I’ll clean you up.” He accepts us. May we accept others in the same way.