What about the Torah? What about the people that only had the Torah? Was there “salvation” for them too?

What about those with a different backstory? When the Judeo-Christian narrative is foreign… When telling someone “You’re a sinner” seems like coming up with a problem to fit your answer, at best… at worst, it’s shaming… What then?

What if someones never heard of Jesus? What if they’ve been taught Jesus hates them? They have a heavenly Father that wants to send them to hell? What about that?

…what if we were wrong?

…what if God didn’t abandon humans for his holiness? What if he didn’t separate himself because of our sin? What if…

He didn’t.

As we looked at before… God’s holiness wasn’t a problem for him. Humans discovered good and evil and ran away… We got scared. We’re naked. We run. We cover up. We hide. That’s us. But the Divine…

The God comes looking.

He came looking for Adam and Eve. “Where are you?” he asked.

He knew what happened, but he came looking and asking.

…and he found them.

He was with them.

There was no resurrection, no cross, no sacrifices, no religion, no beliefs, no faith, no nothing…

…but he was with them.

Yes, they had hard times… but he was with them.

Yes, there were consequences, but like a good parent, he was with them.

Yes, things changed, but this Mother, this Father, this Lover, this god, this… Love… was with them…

then.

in that moment.

What if that’s what matters?

He asked, “Where are you?”

It was like Jesus saying, “Turn (aka repent) for the Kingdom of the heavens is near you.”

…it was.

It was Jesus saying exactly that:

turn…

turn around…

I’m right here…

near you…

right behind you…

I’m right here…

…with you…

I am with you…

This is from Genesis. This is before the cross, before the country, before the people, before the person Israel, before Abraham, before sacrifices or religion…

The first Gospel. The first Emmanuel. For all people.

You hear Jesus is for all people all the time, but…

…what if he really is?

Whatever you call him…

her…

it…

this…

What if this is for the atheist, the muslim, the witch, the christian, the… you name it… yes even the calvinists… what if Jesus is standing there next to them too. Right here. Right now. No strings attached.

What if the God named: “I am with you”… never left…

I am with you.

Amen.”