He Gets Us.

Once upon a time there was a young man who loved animals. This young man was very intelligent and hardworking, and he was sincerely compassionate. The man lived in a suburb with a very large city on one side of his neighborhood and a vast agricultural wilderness on the other side. Every day this man would take a walk. In the morning he’d walk along the country roads. Evenings would find him walking in the city, but he always walked with a purpose. Because of his compassion, the man walked in order to find someone or something he could help. Each day he had a goal to help at least one person. If he couldn’t find a person, then he tried to benefit his community in some other way such as picking up litter, watering a dried flower, or feeding a stray animal.

One morning, the man found a stray dog in a field. The dog didn’t have a collar on, but was caught by her foot in a fence. The man released the dog from the fence and gave the animal a pat on her head. Grateful, the dog followed the man. The animal followed him home, lay outside his house at night, and accompanied him on his walks for the rest of the week. As neighbors saw the hideous animal, they gasped in shock. The dog was filthy! Her fur was terribly matted with knots and tangled with poky weed seeds. One could hardly see the dog’s eyes because her fur was so overgrown. However, one could see the dog’s ribs. She looked as though she hadn’t eaten in months!

A neighbor of the man finally asked one day, “Don’t you care about that dog? She’s unhealthy and she looks terrible! Aren’t you going to do something?” 

“Oh, it’s okay,” the man replied calmly. “I accept her just the way she is. You know, I get her!”

If this scenario seems ridiculous to you, then I’m glad. It seems ridiculous to me, but I am an animal lover, especially dogs. Oh, how I miss my Snoopy! Any soft hearted human being in their right mind can see the absurdity of this story. However, this is the exact scenario portrayed by the “He Gets Us” campaign. This series of advertisements was aired during the 2024 Super Bowl. In the ad, several different people were pictured in their everyday clothes, everyday homes, and everyday relationships, some healthy and some not. The ad suggested everybody around the world is different and that’s okay, which it is. Still, what was implied by the ad is so much more important.

If we rest in the misunderstanding that God accepts us just as we are and has no desire to help us, then we are believing a lie as ridiculous as my story above. We are believing a lie that God has no desire to clean up the mess we’ve made of our lives…or maybe we’re believing the lie that our mess really isn’t that bad. God does in fact “get us”. He became fully man and was tempted with every temptation we experience (Hebrews 4:14-15). His love for us is so great, though, that he made a way for us to be rescued, cleaned up, and healed.

Almost everybody knows the famous Bible verse, John 3:16, which states:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Our Lord didn’t just give us a bath, food, or shelter. He gave his only Son. His ONLY Son. Any parent of an only child…any parent of a child, can imagine how hard that might have been for our heavenly Father. Still, very few know the verse directly after this one.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. John 3:17

He gets us, which is why he wishes that none should perish. Still, his love for us…you and me, is so great; he wants to clean us up. He wants to feed us. The compassionate man wants to clean, feed, trim, and heal the little one he just found. He wants to keep his new little companion. Are we going to let him clean us up, or are we going to growl and bite him because he gets us?

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

2 Peter 3:9 ESV