Roadside Assistance

The 7/29 verse today is from Ecclesiastes 7:29, "I discovered that God created people to be upright, but they have each turned to follow their own downward path."  NLT

Indeed, God created man for His own pleasure.  He wanted relationship with us.  Everything in the Garden of Eden was beautiful...until!  Until man, and woman, defied God and ate of the tree of good and evil.  The devil had tempted them with something they were forbidden to have; they could eat of anything, anywhere else in the garden, except this tree.  Satan dangled an ample double-dose of envy and greed in front of their noses.  The temptation to be like God and to attain His knowledge was too much for them to resist.  The humans took the bait and swallowed the hook, along with the fruit.  Bad idea; bad fruit, everlasting consequences.

What has changed since then?  God hasn't.  He still showers us with grace and mercy, despite the crooked paths we've chosen to take through sin and bad decisions.  He still wants to be in close relationship with us.  To be honest, humans haven't changed a whole lot either.  We've certainly gotten even more wayward as a society.  We've indulged in the wrong fruit!  Anything goes, if you can twist it, or spin it, enough to the right audience.  It's a tiresome circle of "do what you want" mentality.  The teacher in Ecclesiastes got it right when he said that God created us to be upright, but we choose our own downward path.  With sin in the world, and part of our human nature, it has been that way through the ages. 

I could end there and just leave us all feeling hopeless that sin separates us from a Holy God and causes us to act like total screw-ups.  But God didn't end there.  He loves us too much.  He may let us choose our own path, the stairway to heaven or highway to hell, but He also provides much-needed roadside assistance.  God constructed a glorious U-turn, if you will.  He made a WAY for us to always come back to Him, to choose the right path, through Jesus Christ.  There is always hope for us in Jesus.  He wants to make our paths straight so we can better enjoy the journey and end up at the right destination.