Out here in Gainesville we have had many days of rain, to the point where my backyard is a swamp and our gravel drive is now more like a mud run.
Georgia mud is a very unique mud unlike any I have seen before. RED and thick. Due to this I try not to get any on me or tracked into the house. Cleaning up this mud is big task and if it gets on anything white theres a good chance it will be permanently stained.
I say all of this to preface what God taught me these last few days.
Sometimes I think it wont be all that bad if I get a little mud on my shoes. Maybe I think, ehh no big deal I will just jump over this puddle and land in a little mud so that I dont have to walk around it all.
Lets say that works and mud gets only on my shoes. Problem, the mud will not instantly go away, it leave a trail. In my car, or my friends car, the floor of the office or grocery store. A trail of red georgia mud everywhere I go, making a mess of my shoes and other peoples property.
Now lets say the jump fails, and knowing myself and actual past experience running in the backyard I fall. Now not only are my shoes covered in RED mud but so is my whole body.
Bare with me a while longer in this. Now getting up out of a mud pit is not easy nor can it be down gracefully. Often you keep slipping and falling again accumulating even more mud on yourself. Say a friend is there and offers out a helping hand, after they stop laughing and you take it. Mud now gets on their hands and possibly their arm and probably their shoes and hey now they have to walk into the house along with your muddy butt to get cleaned up. This means that mud is going on the door knob, the sink, floor and hey maybe you were not at home so you had to drive your muddy butt home first which means the car gets mud in it too.
See where I am going with this? Mud gets every where, and often times effects other people. Mud takes a lot of work to clean up and often you need help in doing so.
Mud is sin and sometimes we play a little to casually with temptation or are reckless with visible sin and think we can jump over it. We think eh maybe I will watch this movie or talk trash about this person not thinking about the bigger picture and how a little bit of mud leaves trails for days to come, or even worse can lead to slander and the spreading of lies that can ruin a life.
RED mud is so hard to clean up, nearly impossible. Impossible for us, but not for God.
God is light, God is our redeemer and He makes all things NEW.
This reminds me of Hosea and his prostitute wife Gomer who went and sought after her lovers fully in the know of the sin taking place.
I think Gomer is long past simple jumping over muddy puddles at this point and had long since decided to just jump all in and get muddy.
The thing is that Hosea was steadfast in his love and took Gomer back, showed her unconditional love the same as God has unconditional love for us.
He did not cover up and hide her wrongdoing, just as God will not hide and cover up any mud we get on ourselves.
The good news is that we do not do anything to make us new, God does.
He is our redeemer and our lover and we get to run back to Him.
But maybe we should choose to walk around the mud puddle rather than jump.
