December 14

A Good Match

The LORD . . . maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished (Exodus 34:6, 7).

Scripture: Exodus 34:1-7

Song: “Blessed Assurance”

I work at a factory for glazed brick. Our quality control checks for illuminate metameric failure. This occurs when two colors appear to match under one light source, but not under another.

We encounter this vexing problem with popular shades of beige and dark gray. Combining different production lots of these colors is risky because two units that appear compatible in open sunlight may not match under indoor fluorescent lighting (and vice-versa). So if we’re not careful, we can easily ship incompatible units to the same job without realizing it.

Something similar happens when our concept of God is based too heavily on just one aspect of His character. In our preoccupation with God’s love and kindness, for instance, we sometimes minimize the way His perfect justice demands punishment for sin. Yet if we concentrate only on God’s punitive wrath, we’ll underestimate His grace and long-suffering patience with sinners. The Bible says punishment and forgiveness are both compatible with God’s goodness.

At the factory, we mitigate the risk of metameric failure by regularly comparing new color lots against a control sample, under multiple light sources. Likewise, we can guard against forming incompatible ideas of God by regularly comparing our thoughts against what the Bible actually says. In the perfect light of God’s Word, faulty assumptions are quickly exposed for what they really are.

Gracious and just God, help me to appreciate Your goodness in all circumstances. In Jesus’ name, amen.