OUR SEVEN CORE VALUES:
A Gift Freely Given
My younger son loves being good.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that he is good all the time. It’s just that he likes the idea of being good, he likes the way being good makes him feel, and he likes for other people to think of him as a good boy.
Actually, the more I think about it, he’s not so different from the rest of us.
We all like to think of ourselves as good. We like the way being good makes us feel, and we like for other people to think of us as good, too.
Of course, as Christians, we understand that isn’t really true.
We’re not good, in and of ourselves. And any goodness we have in our lives is purely a gift of God’s grace.
Recently, through a prison ministry called Kairos, I was given a beautiful opportunity to talk with my 6-year-old son about grace in a way he could understand.
You see, Kairos is, on the surface, a fairly simple ministry.
Kairos is an interdenominational Christian prison ministry that tells the story of God’s unconditional love and forgiveness through letters and cookies. Letters and cookies are something that everyone can understand, especially a little boy.
After his Sunday School class spent the morning preparing cookies and writing letters, my son came to me and said, “We’re making cookies for prisoners!”
“Oh, wow! What a neat thing to do,” I said.
“Well, we’re making them for prisoners, but I think it’s only for the good ones. You know, the ones that didn’t really do anything bad, but the police just put them in jail by accident.”
“No, honey. These cookies are for prisoners who really did do something bad. Some of them probably did some really, really, really bad things. But the cookies are to show them God loves them.”
“But if they did something bad, then they shouldn’t get cookies, right?”
“Well, no. Remember how Jesus died on the cross to take away our sins? That was for everybody. All they have to do is ask for forgiveness, even if they are in jail. And that’s what these cookies will show them.”
And this simple, life-changing truth is what the people at Kairos share with inmates all the time. And, for so many inmates, Kairos is their first real exposure to the love of Christ.
Recently, the volunteer Kairos Team at Broad River Road Correctional Institute assembled a group of inmates for the start of a Kairos (which means “special time”) Weekend.
As Kairos team member Rich Richardson describes:
“The tables are cleared from all the activity that has been going on and the group leader begins his talk. The focus of the talk is that God’s people care about each one of the participants and are praying for them. …
At this time, bags of letters are brought into the room for each man and they are left alone to read the letters. These bags includes letters and drawings from Sunday School children expressing their simple love of Jesus and sharing it with these lost souls. Many of these inmates have served long terms (one in this group has been in various prisons for 40 years) and some have had no contact with the outside world (no letters, no visits, no calls, total isolation from the outside world). And as the men begin to open the bags of letters and read them, they are touched. As they come to a letter or drawing by one of the children you can see their expression change and many of them will begin to cry tears of joy at the love given by children!
(Letters from the outside are always coveted gifts in a prison. They bring hope. A letter from an innocent child is a sign of life-giving grace. Very few of these men ever see a child, and most have been cut off from their families. To see that one of God’s children could care enough about their rotting souls to write a letter to someone they don’t even know–and to read of that child’s trusting faith, and to experience the love and forgiveness from that young spirit is both convicting and enlightening.)
Later in the weekend, the inmates are given a chance to talk about their experience thus far with Kairos. One of the men stood and said that when he read the letter from one of the children, his heart was touched and that “if this little child could believe in Jesus’ love, then so could he.” At this point he gave his life to Christ.
Another expression of love is homemade “Kookies” (which is Kairos for cookies). These men receive very few treats in prison, and many have little or no money for items from the canteen, so to receive homemade Kookies is a fantastic fortune to them. The participants are given access to these Kookies all weekend and they can eat as many as they want. We tell them that the Kookies are like God’s love: you can never want more than can be given. They soon realize the truth of what we’ve said as they begin to experience the fullness of Kookies and God’s love.
In addition to providing cookies to the Kairos weekend participants, the volunteer team also goes from cell to cell each night and distributes Kookies to each and every inmate. In each bag of Kookies is a Bible verse for them to read and ponder, and the prayers of the Broad River Road Kairos community are there also. Though these bags of Kookies, men’s lives have been won for our Lord Jesus Christ.”
If you are interested in learning more or participating by either baking cookies or becoming a team volunteer, contact Rich Richardson, who has volunteered with Kairos since 1996, at jrich.richardson@gmail.com.
2 Responses to “A Gift Freely Given”
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Janet, that was an awesome!!! article. Cookie
Love it! What a great conversation with your son about grace!