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If a blind man came into your home for the first time, and knocked over an expensive vase, would you sue?
We all understand that when somebody is blind, while they do their best to navigate life, they are going to rely on someone around them to help guide them in unfamiliar settings. Aids like a stick, dog and others can assist the blind to be more independent, but if a blind man (or woman, but let’s stick with man for this analogy) walked into your personal home, they would be relying on you to help guide them. To stop them from bumping into expensive things, or hitting walls and corners of the furniture.
Grace is kind of like you being the blind man. You stumble into God’s personal house when you are saved, and now you are relying on him to guide you through it as you walk through life. The trick is, you’re not the only one in the house, and we’re all blind in there. We are trying to do things God’s way, in his house with Him, but we’re still pretty blind, especially when we are first saved. Eventually, as we grow with God and make it past the foyer and deeper into the house. When this happens, our complete blindness starts to let up a little. We start seeing rough, dark shapes to navigate a little easier. The deeper we get to know God, the more we study His Word and what He has shown about Him and about life, the deeper into the house, and the more the vision improves.
It will never improve completely. We never get 20/20 vision on earth (that’s saved for eternity), but when we reach a certain sight level, God asks us to go back to the foyer, and help out some of the ones who are a lot more vision impaired than ourselves.
So, let’s consider that you were the owner of the house. You have a blind man stumbling about, and he pulls away from your guiding arm because he thinks he’s “got it” and can find his way now. He knocks over an expensive vase because he in fact, did not “have it” enough without you. What do you do? Your expensive vase that you spent a lot of money on is broken. Shattered. You are now needing to be compensated… aren’t you?
The absolute miracle of grace is that God understands our blindness. He knows that we aren’t going to get it right because His house is foreign to us. We are spiritually blinded but this world, and until we get to glory with Him, we won’t be able to see in its fullness. Because of this, when a blind man knocks over something valuable, it might be disappointing to see that thing broken, but we understand a little more. We give more grace, understanding and compassion, because after all, you can’t see.
Even when you stumble around life and continue to break things, when you come to the owner of the home and apologize, try your best not to do that thing again, the owner tells you that while they loved that vase, it’s okay. They aren’t going to sue. They aren’t going to try and get the value back for the vase. If you were in the streets, surrounded by others and those enforcing laws, it would be different story, but this is God’s personal home. He can choose whether or not to press charges, get restitution, sue. And He chooses not to.
It would be different if a blind man walked into the home with a large cane and purposely started smashing around, hoping to break things. That is when we abuse grace. When we pick up our stick and willingly throw it around. We know the owner of the house isn’t going to sue us for damages, so we pick up the stick and carelessly smash and bash our way through. Hitting objects, people, you name it. Those people will not make it past the foyer, and God might deal differently with them. In fact, it could be possible that they think they’re in the house of God, but it’s actually the neighboring house that mirrors the real one. The counterfeit house. In that one, you think you’re getting grace, but when the time comes for you to leave this world, you find out that it was actually the counterfeit house and it fooled you. You damaged, destroyed and stomped through it, only to reveal that you weren’t where you thought.
We don’t want to abuse grace by willingly crashing through God’s house. And while we might feel incredible guilt or shame by breaking things in His home after He graciously allowed us entrance into the home (with a ‘welcome everyone’ sign out front by the way), we don’t have to. His Son already paid the price for everything that will break inside that house. He doesn’t need to sue. It’s already been paid for. He understands that you’re blind. He has empathy and compassion for you in your state. He holds those who have a little more vision to a higher standard, but He still allows a space in His heart for the damage, because he knows you can’t see. He forgives easily, and doesn’t come after you personally for the damages.
Some Christians never make it past the foyer. Will you? Will you continue further into your relationship with God and the Scriptures, not just relying on the “I’ve got this” mentality that causes you to stumble around in the foyer? Yes, you’re still in the house of God. You’re still saved. You still have some understanding, but this is a lifelong pursuit. Making it deeper into God’s house, gaining a little more vision back at a time until we finally make it to 20/20 when we see His face.
Everyone is on a different part of the journey with God, and I hope that yours is one with support, love and curiosity to know God more!
See You in the Adventures!
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