East to West

Have you ever ridden on an airplane?

Forget the fear for a second and allow yourself to imagine with me if you haven’t. Thousands of feet in the air. Clear, sunny skies with cotton ball clouds floating beneath you. The fields and roads make a land quilt of all sorts of shapes. It’s fantastic. As you gaze out your oval window, look to your left and then look to your right. What do you see? That’s right, an endless skyline.

There are moments when scripture comes to life before our eyes. Suddenly, it has new meaning – one that hits us in the chest with a resounding “thud.” It doesn’t knock the wind from our lungs, instead it fills them with fresh air. It leaves you wondering how you’ve been surviving so long without it. The words on the frail pages of your bible no longer seem old and archaic, but fresh and lively.

Psalm 103:12 says, “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”

We’re told that His forgiveness of our sins, that our transgressions, have been removed from us as far as the east is to the west. At 15,000 ft it’s easy to see how big that is. It’s literally endless.

Do you know why God uses east to west instead of north to south?

Let’s say that you can walk the entire globe without any obstruction. If you were to walk north without turning any other direction, eventually you would reach the top of the world – the North Pole – and begin walking south. There’s an end to going north and the same is true of going south. But, no matter how far you walk east or west, you will always be walking that direction. Until you choose to change your direction and physically turn yourself, you will continue to walk in the same direction.

East to west is infinite.

Do you know what that means for you and I? It means that no matter what it is we’ve done, what offenses we’ve committed against Him, or how far we’ve run we have forgiveness through His Son, Jesus. Those sins don’t make us who we are or effect God’s love for us. He doesn’t treat us as we deserve, but instead offers grace that sends our offenses to the ends of the world.

Down on the earth, it’s hard to get a good grasp of that kind of distance. But above the clouds, it becomes crystal clear.

There’s no feeling like finding yourself wonderfully tiny amidst a massive, world-sized love.