Random: God Greater than All My Sin

Grace, Grace
God's Grace
Grace that can pardon and cleanse within
Grace, Grace
God's Grace
Grace that is greater than all my sin

This song flits through my mind pretty regular'. It's part of the whole subconscious thing. Songs come to mind that suit my mood, and that usually reveal it. I often figure out my mood from the song on loop in my head, rather than the other way around.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago this song was in my head, and an odd metaphor attended it.

The movies make a lot of noise about vampires and how much they dislike the sun. Vampires avoid sunlight at all costs. Maybe it has something to do with the way they incinerate into little dust piles whenever the sun touches them.

Light does that to sin.

It's really quite a powerful picture of sin in our lives. There is very little that tempts us that can survive the full force of a look from God and His saints. The more we can keep our lives in the light of those who truly love us, the better off we are.

Peeling back another layer of the metaphor, I often keep things hidden that are no sin. I experience an awful lot of life as embarassing, and I hate to be embarassed. So I keep normal but embarassing human parts of me in the dark. Vampires are known (or they were before Anne Rice) as pasty, white little critters, because they never saw the sun. Those things in me that don't fit my heroic image of myself get pretty pasty-white too. The parts of me that wouldn't shine in an Ayn Rand novel start to look pretty vampire-ish after their decades locked in the basement. I treat them like secret sin.

As I slowly begin to drag sins out of the basement to see God's light, and my brothers' light, some innocent refugees get to escape too. Becoming human is such a slow, painful process. Being heroic, and always having the right answer is much, much easier.

The last layer of the metaphor, though, is the one that arrested me and made me write this note.

No vampire has ever turned the sun into dust.

We think about the holiness of God, and how He can never allow sin into His presence. We read about the way the holy things were handled, and how God punished what's his face for reaching out to prevent ark from falling. We read that no sinner will ever see God.

Maybe it's just me, but I find the feeling in me that I have to protect God from unholiness.

It's as if I have keep the sin out of His presence, or "POOF!" God might have a really bad day.

But God can and did allow sin into His presence. He's always been able to do so, but about 2000 years ago, He pulled sin right into His bosom. He loved sinners face-to-face. He loved them so much, that He embraced their sin, and wouldn't let it go, until all the poison was gone from it. He reduced every ounce of sin that weighed against us to dust, when He allowed His Father to roast Him for us.

His presence is a safe place for sinners.

I don't need to ask whether the lesions on my soul are sin or inferior humanity. I can go to Him. He loved people just like me, and embraced them in the shame of their foolishness. He has already taken the worst of me into His breast and cast it away. When the flawed being that I see in my mirror goes to Him, I know His Love and His Light will work together for my good.

Grace, Grace
God's Grace
Grace that can pardon and cleanse within
Grace, Grace
God's Grace
Grace that is greater than all my sin