“Family archeology…”
“I am a family archeologist,” says my wife…
Layer by layer she digs into our family’s past…
Removing the coverings from the seats of the old kitchen chairs…
Off comes the bright red fabric…
Revealing the stripes that were the top layer 20 years ago.
One more layer…
Exposing this interesting pattern…
We liked it 30 years ago. I think.
Over the years we added layer after layer…
Hiding the outdated, stained layers of the past.
Everything looked good…
For a while.
Then the seats got too big…
Didn’t fit in the chairs anymore…
Started to look a little lumpy…
A little misshapen.
Now when the grand kids sit on them, they pop out of place…
Sending the grand kids to the floor.
So today my wife is engaged in family archaeology …
Because past stains and sins of design are causing us pain.
I can’t help but think…
How like our souls…
It’s easy to cover over the problems of the past…
To hide them…
To hide them beneath a bright, shiny new layer
And so we build our future on an uncertain past.
Until our souls are lumpy and misshapen.
Until they don’t fit where God wants them to fit.
That’s when it’s time for a little archeology of the soul …
Time to dig deep…
Time to strip away layer after layer…
Time to turn to God and cry…
“… ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ Luke 18:13
Then our archeology of the soul will reveal the one true foundation on which we can build…
The foundation of grace…
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, Titus 2:11
The grace of a God who always saw our stains and sins…
And loved us anyway…
…God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
