Yes, we remember all too well.
The teacher whose volcanic moods made one day bright and hopeful while the next we hardly dared to draw a breath . . . The parent who turned what should have been our safest space into a house of vigilance, where anger flashed erratically . . . The colleague whom we tiptoed past, just praying we didn’t trouble him . . .
From all such stories, we deduced that God was just as changeable—a deity who one day welcomed us to Him and next day chased us far away.
The truth—at last—is healing to our bodies and safety for our souls: “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts’” (Isa 55:8-9).
The Father doesn’t ask us in only to suddenly reject us, nor does He act toward us with cold, unfeeling judgment: “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them” (2 Cor 5:19).
Grace is God’s vigilance to bring us safely to Himself where we will thrive and find His deep, persistent joy.
So stay in grace.
—Bill Knott