From a distance we in the church often look like beautiful people. We're well-dressed. We have nice smiles. We look friendly. We appear cultured, under control...at peace.
But what a different picture comes in view when someone gets up close and in touch! What appeared so placid is really a mixture of winding roads of insecurity and uncertainty...maddening gusts of lust, greed, and self-indulgence...and pathways of pride glazed over with a slick layer of hypocrisy. All this is shrouded in a cloud of fear of being found out.
From a distance, we dazzle; up close, we're tarnished. Put enough of us together and we may resemble an impressive mountain range. But when you get down into the shadowy crevices...the Alps we ain't.
That's why our Lord means so much to us. He is intimately acquainted with all our ways. Darkness and light are alike to Him. Not one of us is hidden from His sight. All things are open and laid bare before Him: our darkest secret, our deepest shame, our stormy past, our worst thought, our hidden motive, our vilest imagination...even our vain attempts to cover the ugly with snow-white beauty.
He comes up so close. He sees it all. He knows our frame. He remembers we are dust.
Best of all, He loves us still.
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Excerpted from Day by Day with Charles Swindoll, Copyright © 2000 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. (Thomas Nelson Publishers). All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission.