HE STILL LOVES US

On this day eleven years ago I had a fun lunch with our Mom as we compared treasures from another trip to Ollies. (Good Stuff Cheap). Inside one of my $2.99 treasures was an illustration of the Swiss alps. Since Mom visited the alps, she appreciated this story in Swindoll's book "Hear Me When I Call".

"A snow capped mountain range may seem beautiful from a distance, but when you get close, you see a different scene entirely. Behind the beauty are screaming winds, bitter cold, blinding snow, huge boulders, icy roads, or all fear, and indescribable dangers. Distance feeds our fantasy. Any mountain range seems more beautiful when viewed from a sunlit street 75 miles away. 

In the same way we are all beautiful people from a distance. Well dressed, nice smile, friendly looking, cultured, under control, at peace. But what a different picture when someone comes close and gets in touch. What appeared placid is really a mixture of winding roads of insecurity and uncertainty, maddening gust of lust, greed, self-indulgence, and pathways of pride often glazed over with a slick layer of hypocrisy, all shrouded in a cloud of fear of being found out. 

From a distance we dazzle but up close we're tarnished. Put enough of us together and meet we may resemble an impressive mountain range to the onlooker. But when you get down into the shadowy crevices - the Alps we ain't. 

I'm convinced that's why our Lord means so much to us. He scrutinizes our path. He is intimately acquainted with all our ways. Darkness and light are alike to him. Not one of us is hidden from his sight. All things are open and laid bare before him, our darkest secret, our deepest shame, or stormy past, our worse thought, our hidden motives, are vilest imagination. Even are vain attempts to cover the ugly with snow white beauty. He comes up close. He sees it all. He knows our frame. He remembers we are dust. Amazingly, he still loves us."

During the last few years my wife and I have enjoyed concerts in local performing arts theaters. Many of the concerts were singers from the 1960's, when we were teenagers. Almost all of these singers look fantastic on stage, especially if we are in the balcony. But. Sometimes they join the audience during their performance. 

Six years we were at Lehrs Performing Arts Center at Shippensburg University. A famous singer came on stage in a white suit and I whispered to my wife, "Wow, this guy looks really good for his age." But predictably, mid-way through the concert he joined the audience by singing while he walked the aisles. At one point we could hear him, but he disappeared. Since we were on the balcony we thought he just was beneath us, but all of a sudden he appeared, on the balcony, in the aisle right next to us! 

I whispered to my wife, "Wow, he should have stayed on the stage. Up close this guy looks really old!" 

I too am getting old and tarnished. But I am so grateful that amazingly, even though God knows everything about me, for all of these years, He still loves me. And He loves you too!