I like the idea that salvation and redemption are not just one time events, but an ongoing process whereby God steadily refines out our impurities and imperfections, until we are refined like silver.
However, us being the flawed, stubborn, childish, imperfect humans that we are, this process often moves in fits and starts, like an old jalopy with a bad clutch and clogged fuel filter.
God knows this, and loves us anyway. Loves us enough to stay with us, to chase us down, help us up when we stumble, welcome us back after we’ve left him for the world….and we pick right back up where we left off.
We become his patchwork quilt of grace; little pieces of redemption, of repentantance and epiphany and illumination mixed in with doubt, frustration and confusion. We sin, we repent, we stay faithful…until we don’t; and then we do it all over again.
We need to understand that. We need to understand that God is bigger than our humanity, bigger than our pride, bigger than our stubborness. And that far from being alone in this, it is a condition common to every man and woman who has ever attempted to live a Godly life. Sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing, but never, Never, NEVER too far from the Grace of God to come back again.