If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9, NIV
We all have those students that we tend to bond with more than others. They may be the “teacher’s pet,” the more extroverted student that just seems to befriend everyone, or sometimes, the one that comes in to pet the bunny in your classroom every day…
I teach high school students, so it may seem strange that I have a pet bunny. However, I have found that he seems to be his own form of classroom management at times and a support animal at others. This year, a student from the class across the hall from me started stopping by to say “Hello” (mainly to the bunny) and get her daily pets in. Through these interactions, we have grown close and have little chats here and there about classes, life, and how her day is going.
Recently, she stopped by my desk on her way out the door from her daily bunny check-in and commented on the pens I had by my keyboard. They’re the Pilot Precise V5 pens in assorted colors—my favorite (I know we all have our favorite pens)! I then went on about what great pens they are and how they write so smoothly.
Later that day, I noticed that one of them, my favorite color, was missing. I immediately suspected her because she was fascinated with these pens. This student doesn’t have a great home life and she is fairly low academically. And sadly, she doesn’t have many people in her corner. I thought we had developed a good rapport and trust through her daily bunny visits. So I wasn’t mad about my pen, just disappointed. I felt that our bond of trust had been broken.
The following week, she came in for her daily bunny pets. I was writing with another color of the same pen and I saw a possible opportunity to test my assumption. I mentioned how I had lost my favorite color pen and I was saddened by it. I mentioned that it wasn’t a big deal, but it made me a little sad. She reacted as you would expect a guilty conscience would, offering to buy me a new one and giving me hope that maybe I’d find the original. I told her not to buy me one because they’re fairly expensive in a pack and I had plenty of others, so it wasn’t a big deal. She walked out and on to her next class.
A couple of days later, she popped in more excited than usual and held up my missing pen saying, “Look what I found!!” I replied with how thankful and excited I was that I had it back and thanked her for bringing it to me, never letting her know that I suspected her of taking it all along.
This encounter made me think of how we try to hide our sins from God. We think we’re doing it in secret, that He’s too busy to notice, or (maybe most of the time) we just see something so tempting that we don’t resist the temptation to sin. But God sees it; He knows; and we know that He knows. We aren’t hiding anything, and all He desires is for us to come to Him, admit what we did, and turn towards Him. This student may not have admitted her indiscretion or said she was sorry, but it warmed my heart that she returned my pen because she knew it was my favorite pen. In turn, I gave her grace even when she didn’t ask for it or probably deserve it because I still love her as one of God’s creations, and in a way, she was reconciling her sin.
The Bible tells us that when we come to God in confession, He is faithful and just to forgive us, we only have to confess; that’s it! There’s no need for reconciliation, Jesus took care of that on the cross. We just have to admit that we messed up.
What a gracious God we serve. Even though He is a just God who must punish sin, He gives us every opportunity to admit what we did and turn away from it. I am humbled by His grace in my life and I try to live by showing others a glimpse of that grace, and a lot of the times it’s toward my students.
Lord, thank You so much for Your forgiveness and grace. Thank You for how You lead us to righteousness. Help us to extend that same grace to our students. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Copyright Marsee Huffman.
Marsee is a Christian Educators member and a high school Biomed teacher in Kentucky. She is also the leader of First Priority at her high school.
6 Responses
Love this story and the reminder of grace in it!
Also, glad you got your pen back!
What a beautiful story. I too am an educator and understand the dynamics of this interchange. You must be an awesome teacher to have a student who isn’t in your class come in to visit. You are doing God’s work and it’s beautiful.
Thank you!! I love interacting with all the kids even if they’re not my own. It’s a joke either way many that a lot wonder to my room, I usually check on them and send them back, but I do have a lot that tend to come and just want to visit, lol!
What a beautiful glimpse of and comparison to Gods forgiveness of us. Thanks.
Thank you❤️❤️
Thank you, Marsee, for this word. I recently had my own mess-up and had been really struggling with forgiving MYSELF for it (I should have known better, should have done better…) God did show up, of course, and remind me of his grace, love, and forgiveness…and coming across your devotional just echoes that sentiment because I still need to be reminded of it. God loves us so much that He even works through people to being us reassurance and confirmation 🙂