I went to Haiti for a mission trip last week. It was an amazing trip, and one thing I learned and took away from it was this thing called, Hand of Hope. The Hand of Hope breaks down five key elements of the gospel story. Each finger, starting with the thumb and ending with the pinky, represents one of these five main points. What I loved about it was its simple message of God’s love and grace and how well it could impact both kids and adults alike. The Hand of Hope goes like this:

1. God loves me: God created us special and unique and loves each of us, His children, more than we can even fathom, for eternity.

2. But I am a sinner: We are by nature sinful and unclean and deserve condemnation for our sins. But God loves us, and no matter what we do, God will always love us unconditionally. Therefore…

3. God sent His son, Jesus, to die for our sins: God loves us so much that he willingly gave up His one and only son to die on a cross. When Jesus suffered and died, on our behalf, He became the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. Then, three days later, he defeated death by rising from it.

4. So if I believe: By dying on the cross, Jesus paid the price and paved the way for us to receive salvation. Therefore, if we believe and accept that Jesus is our Savior and He died for our sins and rose again…

5. I will receive eternal salvation in Heaven: There is nothing we can do to earn our way to salvation. It doesn’t matter what sins we have committed, volunteer hours we have, awards we’ve won or money we have. If we don’t reject Jesus and instead accept him as our Savior we will spend an eternity with Him in Heaven. And there is nothing that can take that away from us.