Love Flows Low

The other morning was a bit difficult with my three-year-old Noah. Before we could ever get out of the house he had gotten in trouble several times for being mean to his sisters, getting into a sundry of things he was not supposed too, and of course the ever popular disobedience. It was just one of those mornings.
I drove him to school, and on the way in, I looked down at him and he was just so cute. He had his little backpack on and was carrying his lunch box; yup, cute. So I said, “Hey Noah. You sure do look cute today, and I love you.”
He looked back up at me and said, “I love you too. Are you going to keep me?” After laughing quite vigorously, I was struck by the profoundness of his question.
That is exactly how many of us approach God. We are walking with him, and holding hands with him, but we all mess up. None of us are perfect, and none of us are without sin. Even preachers, but that’s another story. None of us can stand before God faultless.
Yet somehow, when we mess up we think that God is abandoning us. We ask Him if He is going to keep us. We want to know if this is really the one mistake that breaks the proverbial camel’s back, or do we get to keep on trying.
We want to climb up. Climb closer to God to be more like Him, but honestly we have a life to live. We often correlate walking close with God, to daily Bible reading and hours of prayer. And let’s face it, there’s not always enough hours in a day. So instead of climbing up into God’s lap, we feel like we are climbing lower and lower on His scale of beautiful people; and we wonder how low we can fall, before He doesn’t “keep us” anymore.
Taking this path through life is a difficult road. It’s also not a godly road, but a humanistic one. It puts our relationship with God on a points system. If I read enough, and if I pray enough, then I earn the right to a close relationship. That’s just not right. Of course, I’m not saying never read your bible or pray, that would be ludicrous. Phillip Yancey said one time, “Grace, like water, flows to the lowest point.” I love that because no matter how low I go, God’s grace is there. No matter how far I feel from God, His grace could never be closer. It’s not that we strive to get lower on God’s scale. God doesn’t even have a scale. We can’t earn our way closer to God, and we can’t earn our way away from God. God just doesn’t work on a points system. He works on a grace system.
God’s favor is unmerited. His grace is a free gift, and His love could never be earned or deserved. Yes, it’s good to read your bible, and yes, it’s even advantageous to pray. But when the time crunch of life wins the race of priorities, remember, His grace is sufficient, and He is going to keep you.