Our little animal menagerie is a constant classroom. I love just watching them. The ladies, as I call my chickens, love their enclosed yard. They take dust baths, scratch for bugs and worms, cluck with contentment…safe and content. Their house has three nests. They love those enclosed nests. It is so sweet to catch them as they lay their eggs. They don’t disappoint either. Those ten chickens give five to ten eggs a day. Most days there are eight eggs. Because, let’s face it…that’s what chickens do.

Our little Nigerian dwarf goats are always playing. Those boys butt heads, jump, climb, and eat. They “call” us when we come outside.The calls get louder if we don’t come and play. The one thing we didn’t expect is that they are lap babies. They love to be snuggled. They just act like goats. After all, they are goats.

Then there is that donkey. She brays and sings. She runs that stiff straight run. She “hee-haws” when she wants attention. She kicks up her heels and plays. She gets an attitude too. She’s just a donkey.

All this is obvious. We don’t expect donkeys to lay eggs or goats to bray or chickens to butt heads. We expect them to be who they are. Why then are we unrealistic about humans?

We hang our heads in shame when we sin. We didn’t think we would behave that way. Or we don’t believe it was that bad and excuse ourselves. And we certainly don’t want anyone to know we sin.

Aren’t we silly?

Recently in one of my devotions, the writer stated that we are sinners. (I know, that’s not a news flash.) He said we aren’t sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners. It was liberating. I was so relieved. Once again, I realized Jesus had taken my sin. He wasn’t surprised by it. He wasn’t repulsed by it.

I know it’s so embarrassing, so humbling to be exposed as a sinner. I’m not certain why any of us pretend we aren’t sinners. So getting that out of the way…is liberating. How can we be something we aren’t? In our own strength, we can’t. It’s our Jesus and His finished work that cleans us up. It’s His finished work that brings us into His family.

It was such a relief… I am a sinner… I’m gonna behave as a sinner… But grace can transform…Praise our Savior!