Allow yourself to imagine…
You’re entering into the
main hallway of an enormous palace.
You’re walking on a red carpet, looking up at the 40ft. ceilings. On the walls beside you are ornate decorations,
paintings, fixtures, and sculptures.
You are led around the corner into the Great Room, and it’s a massive
space; marble columns, gold furnishings, hanging tapestries, and an atmosphere
that is too vast to even allow an echo.
On the opposite side of the room, almost too far to see clearly, sit a
King and Queen in thrones built for giants; dark mahogany wood and deep velvety cushions. You are expected to approach the King
and Queen, but the nearer you draw, the more difficult it is to move your
legs! “I have no business in the
presence of a King and Queen,” you think. “I am but a pauper. I don’t even deserve to be in this
room!”
But that’s not how it
goes, is it?
Lord I am not worthy
that you should enter under my roof….
Now, imagine your
house. Your shack. Outside the castle walls, it is raining
lightly, and has been for weeks.
The mud is thick and smells awful.
There are cracks in between your door and roof, between your roof and
walls. A draft blows through them
and threatens to put out the meager fire heating up a pot of water and chicken
bones. Your children, God bless
them, are quietly playing in the corner, patiently awaiting their supper of
broth and bread.
There’s a murmur
outside. Over the pitter-pat of
rain on your shack’s tin roof, you can hear people calling and remarking. What is all this commotion? It’s getting louder and closer. Then, a knock on your door! The door is opened and standing in the
doorway is one of the royal guards.
He steps aside and just behind him, in mud up to their silk socks, stand
the King and Queen! Their long
robes, red, gold, purple, and indigo, their shiny jewels, rubies, sapphires,
and emeralds, even the full color of their own skin, all stand out against the
gray and sunken backdrop of your front entrance. “The King and Queen plan on coming in?!” you think. “To my ugly shack?? But.. but.. we haven’t cleaned! We
barely have any food to offer! The roof may not even be tall enough for them to enter!” Yet the King and Queen duck their heads
through the doorway and come inside.
You and your spouse drop to your knees, but the King and Queen take your
hands and rise you up. They are
smiling, looking into your eyes like.. like they know you. Like… they love you…
How incredible is it
that God comes to us rather than waiting for us to come to him? In our lowliness, poverty, and dirt,
God still meets us where we are and lovingly calls us to a better life. God
will stand in the rain and stinking mud for us. And don’t think that God ‘can’t smell’ the stinking mud in
this analogy. His nose smells
better than yours and mine and to patiently wait for us in it is no small
feat. God is knocking at our
flimsy, tin door, and inviting us to feast with Him in his palace. All we need to do is allow Him into our
lives and follow Him to Salvation…
Next time…
Leaving the shack and
trudging through the mud is much easier said than done. Boots gets stuck and yanked off. It smells. You get tired. You slip. You look back and think how
easily you could slide back down the hill right into and through the front door
of your shack…
Also…
“Yeah, but I didn’t ask
for this. I didn’t ask for you to
stand in the mud for me! I’m fine-
just leave me alone. I like my
dirt. What would you know anyway?-
you live in a golden palace!”
…to be
continued…
