“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.” – 2 Corinthians 5:18-19

As a tutor at Skagit Valley College, one of the things I have to do with my Accounting 201 students is teach them how to do a bank reconciliation. To do it, you take the cash ledger and the bank statement for that period and try to make the final numbers on the documents agree. (You can also do it with your check register and your bank statement.) It is something that gives students a lot of trouble if they are not used to paying attention to details, and I frequently have students giving me blank looks when I ask them if a certain number appears in both the ledger and the bank statement. Eventually, through comparing the two documents, we find deposits that are in transit and outstanding checks (debits and credits in the ledger) that need to be reflected in the bank statement balance. On the bank statement, we must find the various bank charges and interest income that are not reflected in the ledger. Eventually, we do come to the correct balance that agrees with the contents of both the ledger and the bank statement.

According to the Apostle Paul, we are in the business of reconciliation. We are having to do something much more complex than a bank reconciliation – we are having to help reconcile our lives to God’s standard. Our sin is something that is impossible to reconcile for us alone, which is why God sent Jesus to die. His death in our place serves as that missing piece that reconciles us to God. We also are called to help others find those missing pieces to reconcile their lives to God. That might be helping them to understand the love of God, or it might mean helping people rid their lives of things that are hurting them. Either way, we share in an important ministry.

Gracious God, we thank you that you reconciled us to you through Jesus dying on the Cross. Help us to help others do the things needed to be reconciled to You. Amen.
-Jen McCabe