Charlyne's Thoughts
From the Heart of a Stander

What do you think that our grandchildren in South Florida wanted to do on their last day before school started? Go to the beach? Spend the day in a pool? Go to the Everglades and see alligators? No, five of ours wanted to go ice skating! Honestly, they got their heads together and wanted to escape the 90 degree heat for a few hours inside one of the few ice skating rinks in Florida. The other Grandma had introduced them to the activity.

Sitting inside that windowless arena, with its cool temperature, seemed far removed from the heat, palm trees, and sand, just outside the front door. I though about how standers must feel when they go to church. For a period of time, everything of the world, and their every problem, is put aside, as they worship their Lord God.

After the grandkids had finished skating, I saw something that excited me like a stander seeing their first Covenant Transport truck. I saw my first Zamboni machine, as it was slowly driven onto the ice. In ten minutes, the ice that had been chipped and marked by kids, skating and attempting to get snow on someone else, had been leveled, and a new shiny ice surface applied. By the time a hockey team came onto the ice a few minutes later, there was no evidence of the misadventures of two dozen kids.

I had heard about Zamboni machines, but had never seen one. That piece of equipment can resurface an entire rink, making it look like new, through a series of scraping away the old, damaged ice, and adding a thin film of water that quickly freezes into new, glistening ice.

Watching that machine do its work, I thought about how much God does the same thing in each of our lives, when we allow Him to work. Regardless of what we have done, once we cry out in repentance, sincerely asking the Lord to forgive us, the spiritual Zamboni machine is called out. Instantly, every sign of our struggle with sin is shaved away. Regardless of what the battle has been, God’s love is applied, in just the correct amount, to allow us to again walk the Christian life in His image.

Every day Charlyne and I hear from standers who feel they have really blown any possibility of marriage restoration, because of something they have done. If that describes you, you need to remember what the Zamboni machine can do to marred, chipped, dirty ice. If a machine made by man can cover all that, how much more our Lord Jesus can do for His children.

I am thankful our grandkids wanted to go ice skating on their last day of summer. The Lord used that activity to teach me a lesson that no amount of alligator watching could ever do.

"Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him." Romans 4:7-8

Bob Steinkamp