The Bully

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 ESV

Sam was always a problem through Primary School, and now into 2nd year of High School nothing had changed. Most of his classmates had come through the school system with him so they knew Sam well, and for that reason he was avoided like the plague. For some reason I seemed to be his primary target and I didn’t know why.

It was during a class field trip that it happened. No one wanted to walk with him as we trekked over the Scottish hillside, so Sam was left at the back of the bunch on his own. We were walking along a narrow, but easily passable and safe path with a steep hill on one side, and an equally steep drop on the other. Sam was messing around trying to make his presence heard as usual, but no one was paying attention. Then he slipped and fell, rolling down the steep grassy slope, his fall only stopped by a large boulder some 20 feet below.

The rest of the class quickly formed a human chain, linked by each hand to get Sam on his feet, and so helped him clamber up the slope to safety. The teacher was impressed, and quite honestly, we were too. He was a bully. No one like him. He was his own worst enemy, and got along with no one. That seemed to make the class action more significant in Sam’s mind. “Whose idea was that?” he asked. At first no one owned up, and then one of the class turned and pointed at me. Yes, it was my idea. In spite of all the horrible things he had said and done to me. I couldn’t see him in pain or danger so I hurriedly arranged to form the human chain, and held the ground at the top as an anchor where he couldn’t see me.

As a direct result of that action, Sam and I formed a close bond of friendship which lasts to this day. It turned out that Sam’s home life was not a happy one, and he was a very unhappy boy who took his frustration out in the only way he knew because he saw it at home.

I wonder what God saw in us when He knew how bad and sinful we were? We gave Him no time, and no reason for Him to like us, but He didn’t push back. He loved us enough to do the only thing that would work. He took our messed up lives to the cross where they were sacrificed along with Him, the one who had never sinned. By dying in our place, He showed us the greatest love that He could and we would ever know.

The question left hanging in the air is, “what will we do about this Jesus?” Will we continue to ignore Him, or form a link straight to the one who not only saved us, but died for us? Either way the choice is ours. There is no third way.