You failed! You’re not good enough! You’ll never win! You’re worthless! The taunts and jeers echo on and on in your head. Every mistake amplified by the microphone of time.
You have been told it will pass, that the pain will abate. But how can it when the source of your torment is your own traitorous heart? Though everyone else may forget, you cannot. The failure, the pain, the disappointment, has seeped into your very soul. You could sooner shed your skin than your failure.
But that is what He has asked you to do. To set aside the failure that, for a season, has become you, and remember that you have not become a failure.
No, heaven has not missed the instant reply of your sin. God didn’t just turn His back and pretend it didn’t happen. He didn’t just say “it’s ok, forget about it”. God would not, could not be “ok” with our sin. His holiness made a demand and our humanity fell far short of meeting it.
So what did He do? Did He throw his hands up in disgust? Did He walk away? No, that is how man reacts and we are talking about God. God Almighty. Creator God. Abba Father. He could not walk away. His holiness demanded distance, but His love refused. He could no sooner leave you to your sin than a father can leave his fallen child. Between His holiness and our hopelessness, a bridge had to be created.
So with careful hands, God the Creator, crafted and raised a bridge between Heaven and Men. The bridge began in a Bethlehem stable and ended on a lonely hill outside Jerusalem. Though by human standards, the bridge did not even make it past the borders of a small middle-eastern country, by heaven’s measure the bridge spanned the galaxy of separation between God and man.
Yes, you have failed. I have failed, but God has not. When God looks at you, He sees perfection. Call it a miracle. Call it grace. Call it hope. But God calls it love.
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