Light at the end of the tunnel!

Yesterday, my good friend Jean (John!) drove me to Audincourt to check out the situation with regard to my car. If I have understood correctly (and that is always an important 'if'!) then Opel have given the go-ahead to have damage to the crank-case attended to, under warranty. :-) Unfortunately, it would appear that there might be further damage discovered - that will require further clearance from Opel before it may be repaired free of charge! However, it's all a move in the right direction, and I am rejoicing in that!

I can understand the situation. I recall the days when, as a young chef, I would offer to do some cleaning in my mum's kitchen. She loved it! As soon as I had attended to one part, I realised that it made another part look grubby. So I cleaned it as well. Before I knew it, my mum had a kitchen that was gleaming and fresh.

The Christian life is a bit like that as well. When I first recognised my own sinfulness, I came to the Saviour for cleansing. However, no sooner had He cleansed me of the sins that were, even to me, so obvious, than He showed me some others of which I had hardly been aware! Like my mum's kitchen, the clean bit showed up the dirt of the rest; like my car (potentially!), one repair may show up further damage.

Of course, no analogy is, itself, anywhere near to perfect. And there are aspects of the Christian life that don't fit the above analogies at all. I could have that kitchen sparkling; my car will, eventually, be as good as new. Life, sadly, isn't as straightforward as that!

Sanctification is an important concept for the true disciple of Jesus. It's a reminder that, while as soon as I make that conscious decision to follow Him I am justified (i.e. Father God looks upon me, "just-as-if-I'd" never sinned), I will never be perfect while I inhabit this sinful body. Only when I reach my heavenly home - either through physical death, or because the Lord has returned and taken His faithful people to the great marriage-supper of the Lamb - will I be like Him, and see Him, as He truly is. (cf. I John 3:2). Only then at the end of this tunnel of human life, with all of its constraints and restrictions, will I truly see Him Who dwells "in light, inaccesible, hid from our eyes". (Walter C. Smith). Only then will I "... understand fully, even as I have been fully understood." (I Cor 13:12; RSV).

"Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!" (Rev.22:20)