In pursuit of “wascals” …

One of my fondest childhood memories was waking up early enough on a Saturday morning to get up in time to get breakfast and be in front of the television for cartoons by 6 a.m. I was a cartoon addict!

Saturday morning was the one time in the week when my parents gave me freedom to indulge in television, so I would spend the entire morning watching cartoons. I was happy watching the coyote try to catch the roadrunner, the pink panther frustrate the detective, and Elmer Fudd set out on his quest to get the “wascally wabbit.”

I haven’t seen Elmer Fudd pick up his gun and go tip-toeing into the woods in a long time, but I sometimes think of him when I see how Christians often approach evangelism … very much like going on a hunt, seeking out the “wascally sinners.”

Reaching the lost for Jesus Christ isn’t a hunting expedition. It’s not an effort to trap, snare, or otherwise tame some wild creature. Yet, we often approach it as if it’s an “us against them” endeavor. And with that attitude, that’s what it often becomes.

Christmas provides for us a great model for how to reach the lost for Christ. After all, Christmas is all about God reaching out to a lost world. How did He do it?

“16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:16-17).

On that first Christmas, God didn’t go hunting for humankind to capture us and make us into something we didn’t want to be. Instead, on that first Christmas God unleashed His love on us in the humility of a stable and gave us what was most precious to Him, His Son.

Boundless love, total selflessness, humbly aimed entirely at our well-being.

Hmmm, I wonder how effective we might be if we sought the lost on behalf of Christ in the same way …

Scotty