EVERYDAY ADVENTURES

A Game of Truth and Grace

My family has a serious board game addiction. We used to have a game shelf. Then we needed a bin. Now our garage looks like a toy store.

It all started several years ago when we thought it would be fun to wrap up several games as family presents and spend the rest of Christmas break learning to play all of the new games together. It didn’t take long for this to become an annual tradition and then an obsession.

My wife and I both love board games, so we use our kids as an excuse to buy new ones every year. However, there are two big problems with this. First, we always buy more games than we plan to, which means Christmas morning starts a mad dash to play them all before our girls go back to school. Some years we cut it close.

Second, my wife and I have drastically different approaches to board games. One of us meticulously studies the rules for hours to ensure that we play correctly, and the other basically just makes it up as he goes along. I’ll give you one guess which one I am.

Second, my wife and I have drastically different approaches to board games. One of us meticulously studies the rules for hours to ensure that we play correctly, and the other basically just makes it up as he goes along. I’ll give you one guess which one I am.

OK, here’s the thing. If game rules take up more real estate than a half sheet of paper, I’m just going to start playing. If I wanted to read a book, I’d go to the library. When I’m playing a game, I want to start rolling dice and drawing cards.

That’s why my wife’s greatest fear is when my 14-year-old and I start playing one of our new games without her. By the time she gets to the table, we’ve made up a whole set of house rules that we think are way more fun than the boring ones in the instruction book.

To my wife, it’s utter chaos. To us, we’re just being creative. What do those game designers know anyway? It’s not like Moses handed them the instructions on a tablet of stone. They just made it all up, so why can’t we do the same?

To my wife, it’s utter chaos. To us, we’re just being creative. What do those game designers know anyway? It’s not like Moses handed them the instructions on a tablet of stone. They just made it all up, so why can’t we do the same?

Somewhere, my wife is cringing as she reads those words. However, our board game differences don’t end there. We also come from two sides of the fence when it comes to enforcing game rules with children.

I grew up in a family who would let kids roll again if they got a bad dice roll and gave them new Trivial Pursuit questions if the first ones were too hard. My wife grew up in a family who played to win. Who cares if you are a 4-year-old? You landed on Boardwalk with a hotel? You’re going bankrupt!

You might say when it comes to games, my wife lands on the side of truth, while I land on the side of grace. Sometimes that makes for some contentious gameplay, but after almost three decades of marriage, what we’re discovering is that the best approach to games and life is when grace and truth work together.

That’s what happened on the very first Christmas. Grace and truth changed the game.

The Son of God, fully divine, became a human, and played by the rules. The Bible says He was just like us, “fully human in every way” (Hebrews 2:17 NIV). He knew what it was like to be tired and tempted. He knew what it was like to be rejected and misunderstood. He experienced firsthand how hard life can be.

Even though Jesus had the full resources of heaven available if He chose them, He never did. Jesus never cheated at being human, never called down angels to take out His enemies, never ordered up holy takeout when He was hungry, never took a shortcut when He was tempted.

Even though Jesus had the full resources of heaven available if He chose them, He never did. Jesus never cheated at being human, never called down angels to take out His enemies, never ordered up holy takeout when He was hungry, never took a shortcut when He was tempted.

In fact, not only did Jesus play by the rules, but He also won the game. He weathered the heat of being human, and somehow always did what was right, even to the point of death.

And that’s where grace became a game changer. Jesus didn’t take a victory lap after He died and rose again. He gave His victory away to people like you and me. People who struggle every day to navigate all of the games of life. People who’ve been bankrupted after landing on one too many Boardwalk hotels. People whose battleships have been sunk, sometimes by our own mistakes.

Here’s the good news of Christmas. When we were stuck back at the start space of life, Jesus made a way for us to come home. The first became last so the last could become first. One silent night in the little town of Bethlehem, the game changed forever because God loved us so much. •

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