On Tuesday, I made our family's annual snow chart.
Surprising no one, I've been charting winter weather events for years. At first, I scratched my weather findings on the backs of envelopes and post-it-notes. Today, I record our snow totals on a piece of deluxe 'scrapbook paper' and display it prominently on our refrigerator during the winter months.
I create a new snow chart only after we've had our first snow. To create a graph prematurely could jinx our snow-fortunes, and the North Wind might take its winter chill somewhere else (egad). My snow chart details the snowfall date, the amount of accumulated snow, and the kind of weather event that produced the snow. Snow events are limited to one per day. Therefore, I recorded a snow event of 1 inch for November 30 and 2 inches for December 1. The label 'Law 5' or 'Northwest Flow Snow' on each entry refers to the conditions that generated the snowfall (Yes, I'll gladly share with you in private about the other four snow laws). Finally, I've added a grade to each winter event as an evaluation of the forecast. Ranging from A to D, the weather grades will help us recall whether events under or over-performed. In case you're wondering, a failing grade isn't an option because the event would never make it on the snow chart (for shame).
My, do I like to measure snow. I want to see how one year's snow compares to another season's snowfall.
And while snow observation is—I will confess--a curiosity, it's not hard to see how we regularly measure ourselves against any number of rulers. No matter how you slice it, we don't measure up.
Beyond the unreasonable yard-sticks we use to compare ourselves to one another or to justify any range of behaviors, we know that we do not measure up to God's expectations for us. We know that we have sinned and have fallen short of God's glory (Romans 3:23). We fall short. We earn a failing grade. We miss the mark.
And yet, Paul shares the good news that we are justified by God's grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:24). This radical act of forgiveness is the foundation of our faith.
But if we are forgiven, and if Christ has died to free us from the wages of sin, then why should we practice the spiritual discipline of confession?
We confess our sins not because it serves as a reminder of what we've done and not done, but because confession drives us toward greater awareness of God's grace.
Gratitude for God's work to save us, and not guilt for how we don't measure up, is what should drive us toward a changed life.
In our worshipping life, an Assurance of Pardon always accompanies a time of confession. The Assurance of Pardon rightly conveys God's love and forgiveness, even though we do not measure up.
Paul Tillich, an extraordinary Christian thinker of the twentieth century, had this to say about God's pardon:
"Simply accept the fact that you are accepted. If that happens to us, we experience grace. After such an experience we may not be better than before, and we may not believe more than before. But everything is transformed."
A life of faith in Christ Jesus is a life that is changed and that bears fruit. When we are grateful for what God has done and is doing in our lives, we become aware of God's power to change us through love. We know God's love because we know Jesus.
It's one of the things that I love about snow. Snow changes the landscape. It covers blemishes. It transforms the earth by the sheer force of overwhelming what came before it. Snow buries the past.
Funny. I could say the same thing about God's love.
