Thursday, March 6, 2008

Who started it, I’m not sure, but each member of the family has picked up the tune and the words to “I’m a little teapot”. Lydia is still whistling it as she folds her laundry. Perhaps we all identify a little too closely with the “short and stout” part.

I thought Spring was here, but apparently my thoughts have yet to become scientific laws. As I scurried in and out of stores, running errands for Mom and Papa and finally managed to meet Lauryn for lunch, the dreary weather turned first to a drizzle, from a drizzle to a sleet and from a sleet to a blustery snow. Jacinda escorted me back to my car with an umbrella.

Spying a drum set in the window of the Valley Piano store, I popped in to see if I might sneak a play, only to discover they were hardly set up for playing. Instead, I swapped piano pieces with the store owner and soon found myself asking if he knew the Lord. Having managed to gear up for a good conversation, I found myself in for a rare treat sharing and hearing what the Lord was doing in a brother’s life. Amazing the bond of encouragement found throughout the body of the Lord.

I was melting with impatience behind a huge traffic jam when Papa called, asking me to come back to the clinic. Weather conditions were getting nasty and the clinic was closing up as quickly as possible. Managing to slip between traffic and get into a side road, I skirted the issue—a pretty nasty looking wreck in a main intersection.

Having wrapped up Leviticus, I find myself looking back on it through the perspective of Romans—the Law is our tutor to lead us to Christ. “You are to be holy as I am holy,” Yahweh says, over and over again. But who can be holy like the Lord? The foreshadowing is beautiful—in a painful sort of way. Bloody sacrifices offered year by year, animals without defect, to cover over the sins of omission and commission, reminder of how short we fall from the standard of the Living God. Hebrews offered perfect parallels (imagine that) as I read through the Law of sin and death. Now, Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world has been slain. His blood is sufficient to cleanse every sin ever committed or that ever will be committed. Once again I am reminded how, in His death, He tore the curtain that separated us from the Holy of Holies and opened up the mercy seat of God, to all who enter having been sprinkled with His pure blood.

It sounds grotesque, perhaps. The life is in the blood, God’s law said, forbidding the eating of blood. Truly, the life is in the blood—the blood of Jesus.

Lord! Only Thy blood can suffice
To cleanse me of both guilt and vice.
The sacrifices Thou dost seek
Are in a soul and heart shown weak

Through gazing at Thy holy law.
And falling on my face in awe,
I recognize I am unworthy--
Yet Thou hast made me pure and holy.