One upon a time there was a little girl who was playing tag in the front yard of a neighbors house with some friends. She was the youngest, smallest and slowest of the group. She was easy to catch. The oldest boy would always make a bee line for her and make her cry when he tagged her out. "What do you have, rocks in your underpants or something, Baby?!"
Then with all the indignant anger she could muster up at five years old she shouted up into his face, "No! I don't have rocks!" And with that she pulled down her jeans in front of all the other kids, pointed to her waist and proudly shouted "I have BIRDIES on!" The other children exploded in laughter and started pointing at her as she stood, humiliated in the front yard once she realized what she had done. Red faced and with crocodile tears streaming down her cheeks she pulled her pants up and ran home.
As she sat on the couch she pulled her grandmothers afghan over her head and honestly believed that if she held very still her mother wouldn't see her or find out about what she did, but that didn't work. When her mother found out what happened she didn't really understand the situation and so the little girl got a scolding on top of being humiliated. It was the worst day of her little life.
That was a really long time ago, but I'll tell you something, sometimes I still feel like that little girl with the blanket over my head. Not with my parents, but with my Heavenly Father. Sometimes I'll do something and feel terrible about it and think that if I just don't talk to God, He won't think I'm there or see what I've done. As if He's not all omnipotent or omnipresent, ha ha...For cryin' out loud, He knows the things I'm going to do before I do them. It's not God who is shocked by the things I do, it's me !
It reminds me of this scripture in Psalm 32:3-5
3 When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Selah
5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. (Bold added) I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD "—and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
Selah.
I think it's time for God's people (including myself) to stop hiding under blankets to try and hide our sin. This has gone on since Adam hid from the Lord in the garden. Instead of hiding from our sin we need to be hidden in Him. As long as He is our resting place He "will protect us from trouble." (Ps. 32:7) That's His promise and I believe it. Not because I can keep myself, but because He will keep me. Now that's something to rejoice about ;-)
1 comment:
You know, the more I think about it, the more I am not surprised that God refers to us as His children or sheep. Neither of which is 100%... shall we say... complimentary? I mean, we do some really foolish things and have some completely misguided reasoning at times. Like sheep, we do something really dumb, we get ourselves all tangled up in things that hurt us and we come to God, He makes us better and what do we do? We do it again. And just like children, we really do try to hide from Him. The old "if I close my eyes and can't see you, that must mean you cannot see me" reasoning a young child has. And yet He loves us enough to fix us up every time we come to Him--when we come to the realization (again) that we need to.
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