Away from the Window

No matter what they do, it seems like they're batting against a window of their own sin
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He was desperate. And blind too.

The little green housefly had been trying to get outside for three weary weeks. Night and day he buzzed around the window in my bedroom, batting against the glass. Sometimes he landed on the slick surface and ran up and down, searching for a way to reach the vision of outdoors and beyond.

I found the little pest annoying but intriguing. His sheer determination to get past that glass seemed endless. Normally, I detest flies. Ten people live in my house, and I get the job of handling the trash. On summer days with bulging trash bags, I'm not on speaking terms with these buzzing creatures. But somehow, I never could smash this little guy. Blindly, tenaciously, he launched himself at my window. I waited to see if he'd quit or die flying.
The glass wouldn't let the fly through. He was doing his best, but his best simply didn't cut it. He was doing the wrong thing.

Perfection Demanded

Sometimes that's how people act. They know that there's a heaven, and they're afraid of hell. The ten commandments shows them where they've messed up, so they try to do better and clean up their act. But no matter what they do, it seems like they're batting against a window of their own sin. They see that vision of life and heaven out there, but they can't seem to reach it. They're stuck.
We're all familiar with the Ten Commandments.
We know the things God demands: those "thou shalt nots." No taking his name in vain. No murder or envy or stealing. No adultery. We know God says that breaking just one of the rules is the same as breaking all of them.
We also see his "thou shalts" Love me with all your heart and mind and strength. Honor your parents the same as you honor me. Sanctify a day of rest, and shut out everything in the world but me.
Rules, rules, rules! Nobody can follow them! God won't be satisfied with the best we can do either. He demands perfection.
Aaron had two sons that found out this truth about God too late. Nadab and Abihu decided to buy some favor with God by burning incense in front of the Tabernacle. They thought it was a brilliant idea, but it was a lousy one. God had a strict rule about incense: only the High Priest was allowed to burn it. So the Lord sent fire from the sanctuary and burned them to a crisp (Leviticus 10:2). Their service didn't meet his standards.
So what can we do?

Freedom Discovered

That fly hit my windows for weeks. He never noticed the chance I gave him to escape: I left my bedroom door wide open. If he had thought to check, he could have gone through the door and upstairs. Our homeschool's on summer break right now, and with seven kids tearing in and out, the back door swings wide every minute or two. That fly could have slipped through somehow. He never did try.
Finally, I decided it was time for a little grace.
Carefully catching the little guy in a cup, I took him outside. He hesitated at the lip of the cup, obviously not believing his own good luck. Then he took off and vanished--right into one of the big black sacks of trash in the garage. He made it to fly heaven, I guess.

I surrendered my life to Jesus, and let him take me away from the window to real life beyond.
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God did the same for me. When I was fourteen, I realized I'd never get past those Ten Commandments, or the other many rules, for that matter. My head was splitting from hitting the glass. I couldn't ignore my sins or take glass cleaner to them and hope God would let me pass. So I asked God to take over. I surrendered my life to Jesus, and let him take me away from the window to real life beyond. Someday, when I die, I'll be free from sin. The glass will be gone for good, and I'll be in heaven--people heaven, that is!

Stuck at the Window?

Where are you? Senselessly beating at your sins?
Squirting a little glass cleaner of good deeds on them to make you look better? Come on, you're smarter than that! You'll never score enough good deeds to make up for the smudges and bad marks.
Paul says that the commandments are a teacher, a schoolmaster: "The law was our guardian and teacher to lead us until Christ came" (Galatians 3:24)
God's rules meant to give us a lesson--and a hard one--about our own futility.
Our heavenly Father wrote the lesson for us. Only he can show us the love between the lines of his commandments. They're the final test, and we flunk every time. That's the whole idea with them. God put them on the test to show us how totally helpless we are. We're like a kid in kindergarten who's given a trigonometry exam. There's no way we can pass it, much less ace it!

We're like a kid in kindergarten who's given a trigonometry exam.
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That's where Christ comes in. He lived a perfect life, keeping all of God's commandments to the letter. He paid the price for every one of our sins when he passed the biggest test of all, on Calvary. All we have to do is claim the power and forgiveness of the blood he shed on that old rugged cross. When we do, we quit making a mess of our lives and allow Jesus to score an A+ for us.
The other option isn't so cool, you know. It's called fire.
The people who try to work their way around the glass only earn heartache in this world and judgment in the life to come. Nadab and Abihu found that out the hot way.
Oh, yeah--the little fly had a name. I called him Dalan, after me. Maybe there's a fly with your name buzzing against a window somewhere. It won't make the world a better place to crunch one fly, and the bug sure could use a hand.
It helps everyone to get away from that window.

-by Dalan Edwin Decker