Nightime Analogies

It's amazing what odd analogies I can come up with while driving at night. Last night as I was driving home from a Bible study I go to, I was going along a rather dark stretch of road. There weren't any cars within sight in front or behind me, so it was almost pitch black. Then along came a car, with the bright headlights that practically blinded me at first. And in the beam of that light, I could see that it was raining. Only where the light hit my windshield could I see the drops of rain, threatening to block my sight. Everywhere else, the rain was invisible. I turned my windshield wipers on so I could see.

This got me to thinking about an analogy. When I was driving in the darkness, I couldn't tell that it was raining at all. In the same way, it's so easy to say that you don't have sin when you are just living as a part of the world. You're only comparing yourself to others who are just as sinful as you, instead of looking at yourself in God's light. And whether you admit it or not, the sin is still there. As 1 John 1:8 says, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."

Thankfully, as I saw, there is a cure for this. The cure is the truth of God's word, "a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path." In proportion to how much we read and apply God's word to our lives, that will be the measure of the light we have. And this light not only reveals the sin we must get rid of, but also helps to guide us in our path forward to holiness.

And the next verse in 1 John says, "But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." This is like the windshield wiper coming and wiping away our sins. But unlike a windshield wiper, which has to continually wipe the water drops away, Jesus wipes those sins away completely. And He is faithful to do so each time we confess another sin to Him. 

Well, there you have it. My thoughts on how driving on a rainy night relates to God, light, the Bible, and sin. This analogy actually held together better than I thought it would! :)