Forgiveness and Other Blessings

Because of my work schedule - filled with recurring events and meetings scattered throughout each week of each month and the fact that there are only two of us to run a busy office - I can't often take a week off at a time.  Instead, I take most of my paid time off on random Mondays and Fridays when I can do so with as little impact on the schedule and my co-worker as possible.  Today was one of those scheduled days off.  I was looking forward to a slow, easy start to a day that I envisoned including a cup of coffee, some yoga stretches, a nice, long walk with the dogs, a few chores, and finally sending my book draft out to a couple more potential publishers. 

But, as soon as I walked into the kitchen to fix the dogs' breakfast, my day took a detour.  As I looked down to admire the clean kitchen carpet I'd scrubbed on Saturday, I noticed a large urine spot.  So, as soon as I got the dogs out, back in, and fed, rather than heading for the coffee maker, I went for the rug scrubber.  I was less than thrilled to be repeating this particular chore within 48 hours of a routine scrubbing, but I couldn't really be mad at the dogs.  First, I didn't know which one had done it ... the incredibly sweet, old, failing one or the new, rambunctious one who hasn't yet learned all the rules or mastered self control but who has definitely laid claim to my heart.  And second, even if I did identify the perpetrator, I knew that he most likely couldn't have helped but have the accident because, in addition to their individual challenges, I had slept in past their normal going out time, so I couldn't deny my complicity in this canine faux pas.

As I scrubbed, I couldn't help but notice the similarities between this situation - having to clean up the mess, forgiving the dogs, not loving them any less, but realizing that this detour from the day's plans might mean they'd miss out on the extra-long special walk I'd planned - with how God deals with our sin.  He understands our weaknesses that lead to our sins.  But because He is holy and can't come in contact with anything that is less than spotless without destroying it, the sin must be cleaned up out of our lives.  He blesses us with forgiveness by providing the sacrifice of His son to clean up our messes and restore us to a right relationship with him.  But, He still lets us live with the consequences of our sin, which sometimes means we miss out on blessings He had in store for us.  This doesn't mean He won't bless us in other ways at other times, but that we will miss out on something special He wanted to share with us. 

I find this comparison both inspiring and comforting .  It's inspiring because it makes me want to live in a way so as not to disappoint Him and miss out on all the blessings He wants to share with me.  And it's comforting because it reminds me that when I inevitably do mess up, there's nothing I can do and no mess so bad that it will make God stop loving me because His love doesn't spring from what I do, but from who I am ... His child.  Thinking of God as a loving parent helps me begin to understand how He can possibly do the things that seem difficult or impossible in adult-to-adult human relationships.  His mercy (not giving us the punishment we deserve) and grace (giving us blessings we don't deserve) can be hard to imagine us imitating and passing along to adults who we view as having wronged us.  But, what loving parent could deny those gifts of love to their own children?  So, I try to remember that not only am I a child of God, but so are the people around me and God's love, forgiveness and other blessings extend to them just as they do to me. 

Sometimes our veterinarian, when coaxing one of the dogs to him in an exam room, will warmly say, "Come here, child."  The love and compassion in his voice are unmistakeable.  Compassion is "a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering".  This definition and the vet's very real demonstration of compassion help me better understand God's love and desire to alleviate the suffering we endure when we separate ourselves from Him by our sin and our misunderstanding of Him as a cold and vengeful God.  When I think of Him as a loving parent, I can't wait to obey the command, "Come here, child" and can feel myself wrapped in His love.