Accidental Hero – Mistakes and triumphs

Bernie is not your typical hero – he’s the kind of guy who will pinch anything not nailed down. If they were giving out medals for wheeling and dealing, pinching and pilfering he’d get the Gold! So when one dark night, he encounters a plane crash the last thing he wants to do is get involved and start rescuing people. But the calls for help reach his ears and after much deliberating he goes into the crashed aircraft and starts helping the injured and trapped to escape. Having done that he slips away into the night, not wanting a fuss, and with a bag he has pinched under his arm.

Heroes are always flawed. I remember when I first began to realise that the biblical heroes are not perfect, and what a revelation that was. Abraham told fibs about his wife, Moses murdered an Egyptian, Jacob was a cheat and Paul admitted in chapter 7 of his letter to the Romans just how much he struggled to do the right thing. And then there is Peter, wonderful, flawed, impetuous Peter. I am so glad his mistakes were recorded in the gospels. In fact I am so glad that all the writers of the bible didn’t shy away from telling the truth about the mistakes as well as the triumphs. Jonah wrote his own account of trying to avoid reaching out to people God loved but he didn’t.

I am very aware of my flaws and reluctance and blundering. Thank God that he is a loving, generous, welcoming Father. One who understands just how broken we are, capable of heroics as well as catastrophic failings.

And thank God for Jesus, the one true hero of the Bible, the perfect son, who is full of truth and grace, life and kindness, and who is with us when we get it right, and when we get it wrong. Every time. Faithfully sticking with us, not because we are perfect, but because he is.

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