Allowances part 1
God makes allowances. That's my thought for today, and that's what I want to explore over the next few days. Here's what I mean: Nothing sneaks up on God and takes Him by surprise. He created us. He knows what we're about. Even when "...GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart" (Genesis 6:5-6)... even when God decided to wash the world clean... He made an allowance for the human race to continue in the family of Noah. Noah, who found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Even when Adam and Eve hid from the presence of God and tried to cover up their shame with fig leaves... God clothed them Lamb skins. He wasn't caught off guard. He wasn't unprepared. We always say things like, "Before God made cows, He made grass for them to eat. Before there was ever a sinner, there was a Savior." But then we always think what WE'VE done takes us over the edge. "God could never forgive me for blah blah blah." When in fact, the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world. What manifested on the cross has always been true. But the tricky part is that while something is true... unless you KNOW the truth, it doesn't always do you a lot of God. The truth has already set you free and made you free. But if you don't know it, you'll still act like a slave. Jesus came and unlocked the door. Now He stands at the door and knocks. But if you don't know that the door is unlocked, you might not even try to open it. You might just cover your ears and hope the knocking stops. I think sometimes we WANT the grass to be greener on the other side, but we don't really believe we'll ever be able to experience it. And that's a problem because, "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick..." (Proverbs 13:12). We can get sick and tired of being sick and tired. But when our hope never seems to get us anywhere it's easy to give up. Now here's the rest of that verse, "...but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life." So let's track this: What is THE human desire? The desire of our HEART? Love, of course. And when we run around looking for love in all the wrong places we can get ourselves into a lot of trouble. Doing anything and everything to get what we think we haven't got. It's not until we come to the source that we'll ever find what we're looking for. The source of love. The God who IS love. And that's the Tree of Life. That's where our appetite is satisfied. That's where we find what we're looking for. But I'm focusing on the middle part, for now. The part where we're wandering around in the wilderness. The part where we make mistakes (and hopefully learn from those mistakes). The part where we NEED allowances. The part where we need grace the most. Where we need forgiveness the most. That's the part where I think we find ourselves a lot of the time. And I'm telling you, that's ok. Because God makes allowances. He doesn't expect us to keep the Law of Moses perfectly. He expects us to experience the never-ending life-long journey of self-discovery that IS Him revealing Himself to us, and in us, and through us, and as us. It's a maturation PROCESS. It's learning and growning. Falling down and getting back up. Making mistakes and learning from them. It's life. Messy, and beautiful.