fall all over me

"surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and i will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." psa 23:6

it is only together the body can be complete.  there is only one way for all of us to get through this life and it will not be without wounds.  "in the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."  john 16:25

the other day a baby christian had written me a letter.  she is attempting her own bible study with a few others and had several questions.  of course i answered as best i could, supplementing with studies from those wiser than me. 

my heart was amused as she tried to sum up the whole bible in a few sentences.  "if i was taught right the whole story goes like this.  God made the world, then adam, then eve.  eve ate the apple and caused sin.  she had pain in labor.  they populated the world.  then people disappointed God so He called to noah and his ark and then God wiped out everything not on the ark.  noah and a woman 'repopulated' the world, but again disappointing God.  but this time "virgin mary" had Jesus who then paid for our sins, died and then resurrected."

"disappoint" God?  yes we all have, over and over again and still do.  sin disappoints God.  and yet, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."  rom 3:23  the thing is, God did not destroy the world because we disappointed Him.  the bloodline had become so totally corrupted from His original creation, He had to preserve what remained to bring redemption in His mercy.  noah too "disappointed" God and we all continue to today.  praise God for grace!  He is always there to lift us up when we stumble.  there to correct our path when we stray from the way.  there to show us truth when deception seeks to creep in.  yes, His grace is sufficient.

let me tell you another little story.

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"one rainy afternoon i was driving along one of the main streets of town, taking those extra precautions necessary when the roads are wet and slick.  suddenly, my son, matthew, spoke up from his relaxed position in his seat. 'mom, i'm thinking of something.'

this announcement usually meant he had been pondering some fact for a while, and was now ready to expound all that his six-year-old mind had discovered.  i was eager to hear.

'what are you thinking?'  i asked.

'the rain!;' he began, 'is like sin, and the windshield wipers are like God wiping our sins away.'

after the chill bumps raced up my arms i was able to respond.  'that's really good, matthew.'

then my curiosity broke in.  how far would this little boy take this revelation?  so i asked... 'do you notice how the rain keeps on coming?  what does that tell you?"

matthew didn't hesitate one moment with his answer:  'we keep on sinning, and God just keeps on forgiving us.'  i will always remember this whenever i turn my wipers on.

in order to see the rainbow, you must first endure some rain.

we must continually come to the Lord and seek His forgiveness."

- brenda hunter

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her little story reminds me of one of my own.  years ago we had a little family in our congregation.  we used to sing the verse, "surely goodness and mercy shall follow me".  because the melody of the song had us stretching "follow" from two syllables into four, his little mind kept hearing instead, "fall all over" instead of follow.  we found his child-like comprehension so precious we began singing it as "surely goodness and mercy shall fall all over me".

and fall all over us it does.  we keep sinning and God's mercy keeps falling.  we are not yet the finished product God sees in us.  He keeps molding and shaping us from glory to glory.  "beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is."  1 john 3:2  we only need to remain pliable and let Him have His perfect way.  i pray we all let Him have His way in us today.



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