My daughter is in her first year of Brownie’s, so I now find myself as one of the parents knocking on doors with the little girl in the brown vest asking people if they want to buy Girl Scout cookies. Now, I don’t know about you, but I always look forward to Girl Scout cookie time. As a matter of fact, one year, no one knocked on my door nor did I ever see a cookie booth set up in front of any store I visited. I was very upset! I look forward to my Samoas cookies once per year! Sorry…I was reliving the trauma of that year, but I’m okay now. Where was I? Oh yes, we’re selling cookies this year.

We received our cookies for delivery a little more than one week ago. We delivered most of them right away. Several days after picking them up from our troop leader, we received an email that we were not to deliver any more of either variety of peanut butter cookies. Apparently, a small portion of said cookies had been stored in a warehouse that had experienced a moisture problem, and all of the cookies in those varieties were being recalled. We were not to deliver any more of these cookies…NO EXCEPTIONS.

Girl Scouts of America has a reputation. Girl Scout cookies are a staple each year. People expect them, and many, like myself, look forward to them. As soon as Girl Scouts became aware of the problem, they took action to make certain that no more cookies were delivered knowing that ALL of the cookies had not been exposed to the moisture problem. However, rather than risk people being unhappy and damaging the Girl Scout reputation, they recalled ALL the cookies.

I began to think about the implications of this for us as Christians. Girl Scouts of America values their reputation, but what about God’s reputation? Unlike the cookies, many of which were okay because they had not been in the warehouse with the moisture problem, none of us are without sin. Once the first sin was committed in the garden with Adam and Eve, every human being was doomed to sin forever more. Romans 3:23 states, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (NIV). It says ALL. That includes me, and it includes you. God knows that we are sinners. He is perfect and holy and can not look on us in our sin, and yet, He loves us so much, He was willing to sacrifice His only Son, who is without sin, that neither of them would have to be separated from us. As if that wasn’t enough, He knows that even after we accept His Son as Lord and Savior of our lives, we will continue to sin. We can repent and ask forgiveness, and He will grant it, but we will continue to sin.

Still, we are His representatives here on earth. In our sin, our imperfections, the mess we sometimes make of things, He desires to use us to tell other’s of Him and His love. He doesn’t recall us because we might be imperfect (and we are) and say you aren’t good enough to be my messenger. My reputation is at stake here, and you are not who I want proclaiming my name. How humbling is that? It’s humbling and inspiring all at the same time. It inspires me to want to know Him more, to strive each day to be more like Christ, and to be the very best in His strength that I can be, so that when I see Him face to face, I can hear Him say, …”Well done, good and faithful servant!” Matthew 25:21a (NIV)

Blessings,

Disclaimer: I am not suggesting that Girl Scouts should not have recalled the cookies. I am merely using this as an illustration to make a point.