White and black

My wife and I will be married thirty eight years in a few weeks. She excels as a cook; however, if it must be heated, she cannot prepare bread in any format. It is amazing that she continues to burn bread year after year, decade after decade. To her credit she does not burn both sides of the bread; just the bottom. The thing that baffles our entire family is that she tries to hide the fact that she burned it by always putting the burned side down. For example, all family members will take a grilled cheese that she has prepared and usually the first thing that they will do is look at the bottom. More often than not the bottom will be black as midnight and the topside will be grilled to perfection. The same is true for biscuits, toast, French bread or anything else that is toasted. It is a standing joke to point it out to other family members by saying, “You have your white,” and then turning it over and saying, “and you have your black”. Everyone has a good laugh and usually two or three others sitting around the table will do the same thing as theirs will be burned too.

The amazing thing about this phenomenon is that year after year she always tries to hide her mistake by placing the burned side down as if no one would notice. Huh? If someone gets careless and does not conduct a visual check first, one bite into it and the charred crust on the underside explodes and crumbles into a jillion black crumbs and it tastes like eating a piece of charcoal. There is no way that it will not be discovered and yet she continues to place the burned side down as if it will make everything all right.

I was thinking about this the other day after biting into a charred piece of bread that eluded the inspection. Isn’t it funny how similar it is for us to commit the same sin over and over as if no one will ever know that we committed it? We walk around as if we are white as snow on the top but we are black on the other side.

No one will ever get away with so much as a single sin, (anymore than my wife could ever get away with serving bread that has been badly burned on one side). Jesus promised that every sin would be made public one day and that we would be held accountable. Won’t that be humiliating even if Jesus took the punishment and forgave them all? If that is not deterrent enough He also said that there is a consequence in this life for every sin. If you throw a rock at a window, the glass will break when it hits. You might regret throwing it immediately after throwing it, but the window will still break. Sin works the identical way. You might have a one night fling with someone and immediately regret it, but later when your spouse finds out about it, or you develop a venereal disease, or a pregnancy, you pay the price with a broken marriage or worse. Even if none of the foregoing occurs, you as a Christian will still have the consequence of guilt to deal with and it can be as bad as the other.

Sometimes we might walk around pretending to be white as snow, but the black will soon be discovered. We do not get away with sin; it is best to repent, (turn away), from it before it becomes a problem. Certainly do not repeat the same one for thirty eight years

I would not want to be guilty of having made light of sin this morning, trust me in that Jesus takes it very seriously. Listen to His warning to us about it

Matt. 5:29
If your right eye causes you to
sin, pluck it out and cast it from
you; for it is more profitable for you
that one of your members perish,
than for your whole body to be cast
into hell.