The blanket that saved my life

Condemnation made its way to me. He was wearing a black suit and hat. He stopped walking when he was right in front of me and stared at me in the face; he was much, much bigger than I. With one hand, he removed the hat from his head and with the other he proceeded to do what I had been dreading all my life up til this point--Condemnation lifted a hand and pointed at me; not past me, not in my general direction, not at the cold, dreary ground...but at me.

The best thing that has ever happened to me occurred then. No one gave me a million dollars, Friday and Saturday didn't become the only days of the week, I didn't wake up on the beach in New Zealand--Someone handed me a blanket saying, "Take this." While sitting baffled and lost in a state of confusion, I then somehow still made the best decision I have ever and will ever make in my entire life. I took the blanket.

The moment I received this strange and unexplainable gift, the Man that offered it to me proceeded to spread it out with His hands and cover my entire body with it. I suddenly didn't feel cold anymore. But the Man didn't leave after He had covered me. He stayed right beside me, extending his arms across me with this warm, cotton quilt. I heard Him say to Condemnation, "This one is Mine." It was then that I recognized this Man from stories I had heard growing up, I had seen glimpses of Him in people that loved others unconditionally and said it was because "He first loved us," but now I was looking right at Him with my own eyes, and all that I had been missing my whole life was right here. His name is ישוע, but I've most commonly heard Him referred to as Jesus.

I learned then that everything has a name, and from inside the blanket I noticed the lettering that I had been ignoring that was stitched into the cotton quilt. It spelled out G-R-A-C-E.

But Condemnation... I forgot about my warmth immediately and poked my head out of the blanket to see if the man in the black suit and hat was still there. And he was! He was still standing over me, holding his hat in one hand and pointing at me with the other. He looked so frightening. The moment my eyes reconnected with him, I felt an unpleasant lump form in my throat. He wanted me more than he did before. And now, not only was he still standing over me, but he was shouting ugly and terrible things. Spit spewed out of his mouth when he hollered.

And though he was frightening, and awful, and convincing, and standing so close to me... he never touched me.

If I stayed under the blanket, he couldn't.

But even though my body was covered and Condemnation couldn't take me anymore, my head was stilling poking out and I was looking at him, hearing him, believing him.

Jesus, still beside me and covering with the blanket, said, "Look to Me. Focus on what I have to say in this present moment and what I have planned for you in your bright and glorious future. Focus on Me and you will not see him."

Receiving Grace saved me, but did not spare me from lies, pointed fingers, accusations, temptations, troubles, or sickness. That is our daily choice-- not whether or not we want them, but what we're going to do in the duration of them. Even after we begin to build a relationship with this magnificent Saviour, the world is still ugly. Wake up, brothers and sisters! Every day we have choices to make, are we going to stare at Condemnation and let his spit and slander splash against our faces? Are we going to let Doubt make a home inside our ears? Are we going to repeat the deception we've been told?

Or are we going to choose to look away and focus our attention on Jesus and what we know is true? It is in the overcoming that the miraculous happens. Leave your worries at the future and come home to the present.

Today, I am choosing to abound in Grace instead of Deception.

Tomorrow, I'm going to choose it again.