Settled grace

I have mixed feelings about snow. It can be the most beautiful thing. It can also make my life as a cleaner of train stations really, really hard. The first element that really affects me is the way it hits driving conditions. I apologise if you are from somewhere that has real snow but I am about to have a good old British moan about a couple of inches, as is our want. When I worked at Gatwick airport snow made the pace of work change, with long periods of delays followed by frenzied periods of activity. In this job it simply makes an easy job into a nightmare. I have about 4-5 hours of driving in my 8 hour day. A journey that usually takes me an hour and forty minutes yesterday took me 4 hours. That's what snow does to us in this country.

So when I first hit the phenomenon that is snow, whilst doing the job I am currently in, I was not happy about how long everything was taking. I was not happy about the potential danger or the wheel spinning as I was trying to drive away from a level crossing but the hill kept sucking me back down towards it. bu there was a fringe benefit to the snow, a cherry on the icing, so to speak.

One of my jobs is to pick litter up at each of the stations I go to. This was, at the time, the bulk of my work. And so when I discovered that all the cigarette butts and beer cans and sweet wrappers and glass bottles were buried beneath a healthy half foot of snow I rejoiced. I rejoiced because I was instantly making time back. Granted not more time than I had lost with the driving, but still a great deal of it. You see the snow had covered over all the rubbish.

And when I stood back and just looked at it, it made the grotty stations I was servicing at the time rather beautiful. Snow can transform almost anything into a thing of wonder and/or beauty. It emphasises certain qualities not seen before, it softens harsh edges, it even makes loud noises softer. It lies over an entire landscape and changes your relationship to it. You even have to walk differently, tread carefully. Each brand new step in fresh snow is so delicious. The wonder of that crisp sound.

It strikes me that snow is a picture of Gods grace. You knew it was coming, right? I hate to disappoint. I will let you do the donkey work, matching up the different elements of those metaphors I have shared with you. I just want to concentrate on the broad sweep of it.

Gods grace is in forgiving our sin. We are saved by Jesus sacrifice for us, once and for all. This is grace enough. Its an amazing unmerited favour, that he should pardon us from every sin we have committed, every careless word, every friend we stabbed in the back, every addictive substance we succumbed to, every jealous thought; all dealt with. All paid for. In full, by Jesus. And this forgiving grace falls over the landscape of our sin and transforms it. it covers all the rubbish, it lends its own pristine crisp cleanness to that which was soiled and dirty.

But snow melts. The joy I had in discovering that at least I didn't have to do all that litter picking soon turned to annoyance and frustration as when it thawed after a few weeks and I found that all that litter had not really gone away. I had a mammoth task ahead of me. This is where we have to depart from the husk of the metaphor, for it cannot hold the seed of Grace for long. Grace is far superior.

When I woke up, the day after my wonderful conversion, the day after having received a spiritual sense of cleanness and joy that was beyond anything I have ever experienced, I woke up with the same stuff on my mind as the day before. Mainly, how to get high. But Gods grace had not melted. The sin that was covered by gods forgiveness was still covered. Gods grace would cover my sin not only the day after my conversion but for the whole 6 months it took me to get free from my lifestyle. God grace did not melt then. It covered my sin right through the next three years of ministry and missions and training, it covered my mistakes, it covered the stupid things I said, the people I hurt, the people I scared. It covered me when I made many mistakes whilst courting, It covered me as I slowly fell out of going to church again, it covered me as I came back. It covered me as I began to raise my children, as I started to learn though trial and error what being a parent was all about, It covered me when my mother died of cancer and I was so grief stricken that I masked much anger with God. It covered me when my marriage fell apart. It covers me now. Right now where I stand. it covers me for my future, it covers me forever. My sin is not counted against me. God said;

"Come, let us settle the matter. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow"~ Isaiah 1:18

I love this. The matter is settled. The snow of Gods grace has fallen on the landscape of my heart and soul. The matter is settled, the snow is settled, grace is settled and our life is beautified and transformed. When Father God looks on a child of his grace he no longer sees ugliness and sin he sees what he has done through Jesus. That was the work of almighty God and it can never be undone.