Vachon Imagined

The other day, my son’s friend wanted to play with his toys.

Not just any toy.

His Transformers.

Cue the music.

Enter Optimus Prime.

Fade to black.

“Do you know who I am?”

“I am Optimus Prime.”

That kind of energy.

Immediately, I went into coach mode.

“It’s okay, Jonah. You can do this. Let him play with it.”

His little body was vibrating like I’d just given him three cups of coffee and two shots of adrenaline. I could see the internal battle. Every muscle was preparing to defend Cybertron.

I held the line.

“Son, you can do this.”

Softly.

Gently.

Firmly.

For a few glorious seconds, peace.

Then… the juice came back.

“This is MINE!”

“Let go!”

“No, you can’t have it!”

“Give it to meeeee!”

It was less sharing is caring and more the fate of the universe depends on this plastic truck.

And if I’m honest?

I recognized the look.

It was the same energy I felt the other day when our babysitter took my son out for fun, and no one told me what time he was coming home.

Instantly, my mind became judge, jury, prosecutor, and Supreme Court justice.

How could they?

Why wouldn’t they?

Who does that?

My nervous system had already reached a verdict before the facts had even entered the courtroom.

That’s the thing about judgment.

Most of us think justice is a set of perfectly balanced scales.

It isn’t.

Justice has always had people standing beside the scales.

People who pause.

People who ask another question.

People who see the whole person instead of the worst thirty seconds of their day.

People who quietly tip the scales toward mercy.

They do it for me.

They do it for you.

They do it for my son when, for one brief moment, Optimus Prime was apparently worth starting a civil war over.

Thank God for those people.

Thank God for the grace that interrupts our certainty.

Thank God for the kind of protection that doesn’t first ask who you are, what you’ve done, or whether you’ve earned it.

Because grace has never been awarded to the deserving.

It has always been given to the human.

And that has always included you.