the goal had been to give a lot of time in between my 'first' post, and my 'first TRUE' post, but i think i may have overdone it :)
either way, i think i may start with something a coworker said once that instantly translated in my head to an analogy. it may be way off-base, but i think i'm going to start with those thoughts here, so that they get the longest amount of time to be refined (in being posted first!).
i had an injury that required an mri, and as i was discussing the experience with a coworker who'd been there before (who was obviously feeling the need to assuage my fears) said in passing, 'just make sure you don't wear a belt, or have anything metal on your person or in your pocket. a penny can destroy that machine.'
now, regardless of whether a copper penny would destroy a magnetic machine, it was the parallel that struck me: we struggle with the concept of a holy God, mostly because we are so UNholy that we cannot fathom the distance. but what if we thought about our sin as the penny, and God's holiness as the forces driving the mri machine? the tiniest piece of metal can destroy it, when present, in the same way that the tiniest sin is abhorrent to a God who is so far removed from sin.
and, let's add to that: maybe we also are like magnets, but the little ones that come in toys that you can connect to build little robots and houses and such, who possess a tiny allotment of those forces. maybe the reason our hatred of sin is weak is because our 'forces' are weak. so, instead of choosing to say that we humans have a 'more realistic' or 'less crazy' attitude towards sin, maybe we should step back and say that an eternal God has the right perspective when He forbids even a sliver of sin, or ferromagnetic metal :), in our lives. and, that the God who abhors sin to an infinite degree is a God worth worshipping.
