This morning as part of my talk for church, I used this illustration. I thought it was worth revisitng here. [Read talk, listen to mp3 Tuesday or later]
The Pier
Growing up we had a pier at our cottage a lot like the one in this picture. Each year, we had to repaint the pier to keep it nice and white and nice and slippery.
When I was about 11 my dad decided that he was going to allow me to paint the pier all by myself. So, he handed me the brush and a bucket of paint and told me to get to work. And so he sat on shore and watch while I started painting.
I’d paint a couple of rows and scoot back. Paint a couple more and scoot back some more. It wasn’t too long… ok, I had almost finished… but I realized that I had started from the wrong end. The more I worked, the further from shore I had gotten. I was left with a few choices… I could wait for the paint to dry, I could jump and swim it in, or I could hope that my dad would come out with a boat to get me.
It’s a lot like the passage we studied today. The more we got into it… the further we felt from God. The harder we worked to get out of it… the further we felt. But in reality… unlike my dad, we are all given the chance for mercy. While God the Father may allow us to make that mistake and wonder further and further from shore, we can be assured that because of God’s great love for us… he will go more than just halfway. It’s called mercy.
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