“You must have done something really wrong,” said a complete stranger as I climbed back into my truck. I was carrying several bundles of fresh cut flowers with plans to assemble an impressive bouquet for Lucy’s birthday. “Excuse me?” I asked. “Oh, you must have done something terribly wrong.” I smiled at him and said, “Or I have a really great woman.”
 
I laughed as I drove away thinking of this man’s assumptions that I was in the doghouse and a peace offering of flowers, with a lifespan of a mere few days, was going to repair whatever horrifying offense I had committed. Flora restores favor. Can flowers do that? I don’t think so. Chocolate maybe.
 
Sometimes when we drift away from the Lord, we wrongly imagine that the pathway back to Him is through some performative measure. There’s a contribution we can make or a noble deed we must attempt to get back in His good graces. Certainly, there must be something we can do to prove we’re worthy of His love and forgiveness.
 
Such thinking is both an over estimation of our ability and worse, an insult to the sufficiency of his sacrifice. His grace is unlimited, and His love is everlasting. When King David drifted deeply into sin his only cry eventually was “have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.”  
 
There are no pay backs with God, only the humble reception of His mercy. David sums up his experience of repentance this way.
 
For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Psalm 51:16, 17
 
If you’re adrift from God today, forget the flowers. Don’t try to work your way back. Just bow, give thanks for His mercy, and believe with all your soul that He will not despise a broken and contrite heart. Only He can cleanse us from our sin and that work was fully accomplished in His sacrifice on the cross. As the old hymn says, “Nothing in my hand I bring; only to the cross I cling.”
 
May God give you the assurance of the forgiveness of your sins through our blessed savior Jesus. If you hold fast to Him, you are NOT in the doghouse.
 
With you on the journey,
 
Tom