Romans 3:22b-25 Snow, Broken lives, and His Forbearance

Romans 3:22b-25 “For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.”

It snowed here recently, and I would have to guess it has snowed somewhere around most of you too. This sort of thing tends to happen in winter frequently and the farther north you go, the more of it you will see. There is an inherent beauty in the slowly drifting and falling flakes of snow. Seeing the land covered in snow is delightful. Yet there is a problem with snow: it comes for a time and covers the ugliness of the trash underneath. I can go walking through the snow on my way to the corner store and my foot will land on or dislodge broken beer bottles, empty shopping bags, and other various forms of refuse which people throw out of their car. It is hidden by the beauty of the snow.

I am certain that now many of you are thinking “Wait, he started off talking about falling short of the glory of God and now he is talking about snow!” Think of it this way then, in our lives we have accepted Christ and we have put on a veneer of holiness. Externally we show the pristine beauty of newfallen snow but in our internal selves we have yet to clean up the refuse and trash which is littered everywhere. Please don't take offense. We all have those portions of our lives where we are totally clean and God has purified us, but we also all have those places where we tell God “this I want to keep!” We make excuses and come up with reasons why He shouldn't clean up that area of our life.

We need our lives cleaned up and the only one who can truly clean it up is Christ. We all know we have sinned, each and every one of us has missed the mark and screwed up and the result is pretty messy. The debris from out personal car wrecks is scattered everywhere in our lives and Jesus offers to pick up every piece and clean us up, but we have to allow Him to removed the veneer and bring to light each and every scar, each and every piece of trash, each and every mistake must be aired out and the consequences dealt with.

That is the glory of His justification, of His forbearance! He can wait as long as He needs for us to get around to letting Him clean up that last acre. He reminds us that we gave Him all of our life, every part of it, trash included. He reminds us that He has better for us, and He reminds us that He loves us despite the debris. In our personal lives, in the winter and depth of darkness that next covers our soul, there is that light, there is Christ slogging through the snow, soaked to the bone and every so often he bends over and picks up yet another piece of trash which he puts into the trash bag he carries with Him. Christ would remind us that we are not alone, He is there with us even when we do not realize it! Let us remember that He has already redeemed us and is justifying us daily! He is turning our winter wonderland into a true wonderland!

Creation’s Lord, we give Thee thanks
That this Thy world is incomplete;
That battle calls our marshaled ranks;
That work awaits our hands and feet.

That Thou hast not yet finished man;
That we are in the making still,
As friends who share the Maker’s plan
As sons who know the Father’s will.