Oh, wash yourselves! Be clean! Let me no longer see you doing all these wicked things; quit your evil ways. Learn to do good, to be fair, and to help the poor, the fatherless, and widows.
Come, let’s talk this over, says the Lord; no matter how deep the stain of your sins, I can take it out and make you as clean as freshly fallen snow. Even if you are stained as red as crimson, I can make you white as wool! If you will only let me help you, if you will only obey, then I will make you rich! But if you keep on turning your backs and refusing to listen to me, you will be killed by your enemies; I, the Lord, have spoken. Isaiah 1:16-20
I have never been one to be a big collector of themed items. Okay, there was the unfortunate unicorn phase of the 80s and the cliche Gone With the Wind phase of the 90s, but in my defense, it wasn't really me collecting them, most were gifts from people who knew I liked them. So it has never been my practice to really create themed Christmas decor.
My kids have usually had their favorite things on their trees. John Paul had the GA Bulldog tree for a while, Chrissi's tree was a mixture of the obligatory girlie Barbie, Disney Princesses and Wizard of Oz. Stanley Chris has always loved wild life and then there was the tree of hunting and fishing decor in the upstairs living room in our old house. For the most part, however, Christmas decor was a mixture of what ever shiny object, bauble or ball caught my attention.
For the last four years, I'll just be honest, if I had not had small children, I would have skipped Christmas and hopped a plane to the nearest warm climate at 3:45 on the last day of school before Christmas break, only to return the night before the first day of school in January with a nice tan.
This year my children and I have finally begun to get into the spirit of decorating again. And I must make another confession, I have overspent incredibly this year on new Christmas decor. I hang my head in shame (insert shameless snicker here) somehow I do not know that we will ever be able to unwrap the treasured yet painful memories of Christmases past in the form of delicate ornaments that were collected for 20 years. The stories collected with them are bittersweet reminders of empty spaces and empty places that may never be filled again.
I began my morning as I often do on Saturdays and days off. A cup of coffee, a fire in the fireplace and my devotions. I go to my social media and visit the devotional pages I frequent there as well. My friend Troy Davis has posted a good word this morning (I always enjoy reading his posts and those of his wife Shannon. There is much truth, learned the hard way, as mine was, in their posts)
This morning Troy is discussing the little sins. I sit here in the early morning and my heart and mind begins to ponder his words. I look around my dimly lit little living room, the one that I would not even possess if it had not been for those little sins. (you can scratch your head here, I promise I will get to the point in a moment) Here in this cozy little space we are decorated for Christmas. Hanging from the tree and from the mantle this year, we once again have a theme, purely unintentional I promise, yet a significant life lesson.
The theme this year? Snowflakes
So now you may ask, "what do snowflakes and sin have in common?" I'm so glad you asked.
Troy's post was on how even a "little sin" can separate us from God and how sinful patterns are dangerous.
Now if you know me at all, you know that I am NOT a cold weather girl, but I do love a good snowfall. For about a day, then I'm over it. But.... did you know that it is estimated that there are over 1 billion crystals in a cubic foot of snow? That's a lot of ice....Brrrrrrrr!
My northern friends know just how dangerous cubic foot after cubic foot of the beautiful, fluffy white layers of ice can be. In March of 1973 and 1994, we here in central Georgia experienced a relatively small experience of what an accumulation of snow can do. For days our worlds came to a stand still as we all stood in wonder, trying to figure out how to get out of this mess we were in.
So it is with the sin that so often separates us from our Heavenly Father. Often times it begins with something that may not even appear to be sin or something we can easily justify and rationalize away, yet left unrepented it can escalate into an unrecognizable and overwhelming situation before we know it. We can find ourselves in situations that we would never have thought ourselves capable of. The enemy's plan is complete in one small act of disobedience.
Our enemy has one purpose, that is to destroy the Kingdom of Christ and he does this one person, one family, one church at a time. As we look around in the media and even in the pews of our churches, where families once filled the empty seats, it would be easy to believe that the enemy is winning.
I fully believe that those of us who have had a true salvation experience with Christ are granted the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and I believe that He will warn and convict us at the thought of any "tiny sin" that may open the door for destruction and damage down the road. The enemy of our souls does his best to speak lies to our circumstances and all he has to do is great doubt.
The very first sin began in this way. In Genesis we have all heard the story of the fall since childhood. Even the unbeliever is familiar with the story of Eve and the serpent. God had commanded Adam to eat of all the trees of the garden with the exception of one. There are over 2500 known species of fruit bearing tree in the world today, so it is safe to assume that each would have been present at the creation of the the Earth. Adam as the head of his home has passed this knowledge to his wife Eve. Each have been told that surely they will die if they partake of this tree, never understanding that death would not be immediate, but eventual.
In John Bevere's book Good or God, he delves into the truth that often times sin appears to us as something good and that our enemy presents sin wrap in a pretty package, a possibility of all that we think we desire and doubt begins to form. We begin to trust our own judgement and latch on to what we deem as good, while what we really need to do is wait for God's best.
This one event sent the couple, who walked daily with God himself, (the only two mortals to have been granted the earthly privilege of looking into his face) spiraling into the very first family mini drama. Think about it, The Kardasians had nothing on this family, Genoa City couldn't hold a candle to the land just outside the Garden. Eve, the first "Real Housewife" began a landslide for her family, and the rest of mankind, that could easily have been avoided. One generation later and we see greed, envy, murder, and deceit enter into the world and so it has been ever since.
One tiny sin...pride. The tiny sin that can separate us all from the Father. The sin that leads to all others. In this one moment, Eve thought she knew better than God and in the moments when we choose to ignore the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit, we are saying in essence that we know better than God and we are willing to accept temporary good in the place of His plan.
I have seen this play out in my life all too painfully and it is with deep regret that I would beg the reader standing on the edge of decision to heed the nudging of the Holy Spirit to turn from, confess, repent this tiny sin that like one small snowflake can accumulate, easily and inevitably, until you are left standing blindly in a blizzard of sin, shivering in the cold recognition that you do not know exactly how you got here in this place so far from the promise. One tiny sin can begin a storm that leaves you trembling hopelessly, stumbling in hapless direction, aimlessly make one more poor decision after another until it seems that all hope is lost.
Pile one blizzard onto another and another. Add a hillside and one small catalyst and you will have an avalanche. One tiny sin can lead to an avalanche of sins that leaves us unrecognizable, can change us in ways we never thought. Can alter our landscape until it seems our story is nonredeemable.
In 1962 , the largest avalanche ever recorded occurred in the country of Peru. The ice cap of a mountain, Huascaran, Peru's highest summit at 6768 meters, broke away creating an avalanche that dropped 13,900 feet. It traveled for 9 miles until it reached a tiny town of 6000. Rescuers searched for days in the devastation only to find body after body. The landscape changed for ever. All signs of life gone in an instant. There were no survivors.
I think back to a movie that I once saw, One of the Love's Journey movies. In the scene, a violent and sudden blizzard begins while Marty, the heroine of the movie is out on a bluff praying. In the scene, though she is not far from the warmth of her own cabin, the snowflakes are circling, whirling crazily around her to the point that she cannot even see inches in front of her. She has lost her way in the circumstances. Her husband has gone out to search for her and he too becomes lost in the thick white mass of ice hanging in the air. Realizing that her parents are not coming back quickly the daughter goes to the cabin door and begins banging on a pot, giving them a point to focus on in the blinding blizzard so that they may reach home safely again.
One thing the enemy never counted on....generations later, the Son of God, who had been there at the time of creation, came to Earth as redemption's plan. The babe lying in a manger, whose sole purpose was and is to redeem the lost. To right the wrong. To shepherd His own to eternal life with Him.
This is not your warm fuzzy, feel good Christmas blog, just a sincere plea from one who has personally experienced the devastation of one tiny sin. My landscape forever changed by the choices of myself and others. As we begin this holiday season, if this is you this season dear friend. If you find yourself on the edge of a decision that the enemy is telling you is okay. If you have settled for the world's good instead of God's best. If you find yourself stumbling blindly in the midst of a storm caused by one tiny sin, I urge you to find your focus. Heed the voice of the Holy Spirit, surrender it to Jesus. Let Him lead you back home.
Chris Tomlin- Come Home Running
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