That's what one of my 9 year old students retorted upon being called out for allegedly "peeking" during the selection round of "Poisoned Apple." (For those of you who don't know this game, it is basically "Killer" where kids shake hands and one "killer" tickles hands as he shakes them and the kids try and find the murderer. Except, we don't call it that, cuz murder ain't cool. But, poisoning people into a deep sleep is totally apropos.)
"If you knew me, I'm fair!" That's not even a grammatically correct sentence but it's all I can think about since I heard it. "If you knew me, I'm fair." I believe you, kid. I know you.
The world makes us cynical. I don't want to get on a tangent about this, mostly because I'm sure we all agree. I've seen this kid in class. He's well behaved, a hard worker, and comes in every day with his lines memorized. He's the last kid I would incriminate with such a dastardly crime. Yet, we have this other student who has been so programmed to assume that others are out to ruin the game that he sends himself into a defensive state of mind before the game has even begun.
In all my years of teaching and playing this game, or games similar. Kids usually don't peek. They don't want to peek. They want to play the game. That's who they are. Far be it from me to make a generalization about a child, but as I've gotten to know so many kids over the past years of teaching them, I would say that it is the nature of a kid to want to play the game rather than ruin it for themselves or others.
How many times in my life have I called out God for peeking? How many times have I tried to incriminate my Father with a dastardly crime that is completely out of His nature? "If I knew Him, He's fair!" But sometimes, I don't. Sometimes, I completely disregard the nature of Christ and make a false assumption on the inevitable demise of this game I so badly want to play. Like the servant who received only one talent, I operate from my false assumption of my God and not who I truly know him to be.
As an artist, even just as a human in today's world, I see people who have been hurt by the church almost daily. I hear people's tragic tales of hate and disdain and disgust unapologetically bestowed upon them from other people. It creates this fictional understanding of who God is and what He has for us. "If they knew Him, He's fair!"And it hits me that we might be the first chance someone gets to meeting Him and to knowing Him. Can we witness with delight, having seen the incredible game He wants to play? Can we set aside the cynicism the world has squandered on us and showcase the true, authentic love we know our Father is capable of? Can we be the beginning of the end of "If you knew me, I'm fair!" and the inauguration of "Because I know Him, I'm fair."
"I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you..." Ephesians 1:16-18
