WEEK THREE'S WORD: FORGIVENESS

I can only imagine what things this week will bring... I have to admit, when God told me the word for this week, I was momentarily overwhelmed with what might lie ahead. But I enter it excited. It is funny... when I stop and think of what Redemption would have meant to me before this Lent, I would have said forgiveness first.

But connection and blessing came first when I inquired of God. Perhaps He wanted me to come to the understanding of our connection to everyone in the world, and the realization that we are called to be a blessing to each one of them, before He started me on this very unexpected path.

I was looking at the ceiling above my bed this evening, thinking about forgiveness when I noticed something about the very poor dry-wall and spackle job in that room. Out at the corners of the room the blemishes were such mysteries... were they gouges? Were they tears? Were they just little marks or huge misplaced globs of spackle? The dim lighting made it so hard to tell. It looked too unapproachable and overwhelming to even think of fixing it.

Right around the light, however, it wasn't so mysterious, though there were blemishes, none the less. The difference was, there were no shadows. In the light they could be seen for what they were and so taken care of accordingly if a willing and patient dry-waller were to come along...

And I realized that my sin is kind of like that. And much of my looming ideas about forgiveness. God is asking me to let my heart shine right under His light this week. And though He doesn't promise it to look blemish free, He will remove all the shadows and with much patience and care, help to fix my horrible attempt to fill the cracks and spackle over my marks in the dark.

And He has something to teach me, I'm sure, as we go.