Psalm 8:4 “what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?”
Mind the gap, please! We heard that warning every time we prepared to disembark the London Underground on our recent trip to England. The words echoing from the public address system cautioned passengers to be aware of the opening between the subway door and the station platform. The unique British term captured my attention….
Gaps. Splits. Divisions. We experience a lot of them in life, don’t we? But no gap bears greater significance than the one between God and man.
When the Jewish Tabernacle was constructed, God gave very specific instructions as to how it was to be built (Exodus 26). Curtains of heavy tightly woven linen separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place where God’s presence dwelt. That linen curtain might as well have been an iron curtain. The separation between a holy God and sin-filled man stood impenetrable.
God, however, minded the gap. He sent One who would bridge the great divide. The only One who could… His One and only….(John 3:16).
When Jesus died, that tightly woven curtain of separation was literally torn in two. His sacrifice atoned for every sin ever committed and provided a way for us—through him—to step safely onto the platform. No longer do we have to fear slipping into the crevice and being crushed by a subway loaded with our sin and shame. His grace carries us into the very presence of God that heretofore had been inaccessible.
God wants us to heed the warning. It’s easy for us to become so engrossed in the hustle and bustle of life, that we ignore his call. Yet he speaks to us as regularly as that heard on the London subway. Mind the gap… Mind the gap…Sometimes he whispers it in moments of aching beauty or undefined instances of joy. At other times, as C.S. Lewis notes, he shouts it in our pain.
Have you heard his voice? Are you mindful of any gaps between you and God today? Don’t take them lightly. Jesus paid a tremendous price to bridge the gap and bring us back to our Father…a Father so filled with love for his children that he…
Minds the gap.