Many children have to know the secret password to enter a clubhouse or tree house; only the select few get in.
If you don't know the password, you are shunned, ostracized, sent away.
If you know the password, but hadn’t been told it by the club president, you were still shunned — and an inquisition was made to determine who had given it away. Then they, too, were booted out.
How many passwords do you need to remember as an adult? The password to your email account, your bank account, your Cloud account, your Facebook account, your LinkedIn account, your whatever account.
Most of us have more passwords to remember than we have accounts we can remember.
And passwords cannot be simple anymore. Now they have to have at least one capital letter, at least one number, and at least one symbol.
H0wRedicul0s!zThat?
The more unusual combinations manufactured in passwords, the more secure it is. But do you really feel secure with your passwords? Or are you concerned someone will be able to figure out one of them, hack your accounts, and steal your identity?
Whereas there exists the possibility that someone could hack you and steal your identity, one identity is so secure it can never be stolen.
You are a child of God. No one can take this identity from you. In the Bible, 1 John 3, we read, “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.
"The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now.”
The depth of God’s love is so deep, it is rooted so strongly in you, that this promise should bring great comfort, solace and joy.
On this day, as you celebrate the birth of our nation — even as it seems to some this nation is coming apart at the seams — remember this nation is the strongest on the face of the Earth.
Also remember the gift of new life you received when you made the decision to follow Jesus Christ, and the claim he has on you — even if it seems you are falling apart at the seams.
His promise is the strongest in the universe.
Passwords may be able to be broken. But God’s promises never are.
The Rev. Mark Broadhead is Laurel Hill Presbyterian Church and First Presbyterian Church of Crestview's pastor.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: BROADHEAD: Online passwords break — God's promises don't