If you live long enough in this fallen world, you will most likely someday make the unhappy discovery that all the things in your freezer/refrigerator are warm. The liquefied ice cream will ooze from its carton; you will almost hear the bacteria reproducing in your ground beef; you’ll find your frozen vegetables disturbingly soft and squishy. You will feel deeply betrayed by this appliance that was never supposed to quit.
On a recent evening, I noticed that a raucous rumble was coming from the depths of our refrigerator. My husband turned the fridge off and back on and the noise went away, so we slept peacefully that night, deluded into thinking our cold and frozen things would remain that way.
The next morning, no one noticed that the milk was a bit balmy. In fact, nothing seemed amiss until early afternoon when I came home with groceries to put away. As I opened the freezer door, I instantly realized something was very wrong indeed. Our trusty refrigerator had bitten the proverbial dust, and taken down some fine food items with it.
Ignoring our bank balance, we had to shop for a new fridge … pronto. The process began the way it always begins at our house when a major purchase is mandated – we opened up our trusty Consumer Reports Buying Guide and began learning more than anyone should ever know about refrigerators.
Cars, appliances, computer stuff, electronic gizmos – if we have one at our house, it probably earned a good rating in Consumer Reports. In fact, if there had been such a thing, I know that my husband, Joe, would have checked out the 1977 “bridal” edition of Consumer Reports before he married me.
And that makes me realize how glad I am that Consumer Reports doesn’t put out an annual “wife” ratings edition. I have come a long way since my newlywed days when beanie-weanies and brownies were my cooking specialties, but I’m no gourmet, so I might get an “average” rating for my kitchen skills. I don’t even want to think about how I might fare under “durability.” Until I hit 35, I was chugging along pretty well, but a slew of knee surgeries, gall bladder problems and bifocals would probably send me spiraling down the charts. Under “aesthetic appeal,” comments to the side might include, “has a nice twinkle in her eyes, but tends toward gray hair and cellulite.”
Yes, indeed, I’m very glad that I don’t have to rely on consumer research ratings to sell myself to anyone … especially God. But there are lots of folks who don’t believe that. They think God is like a big Consumer Reports tester, keeping tallies and scores on all their assets and defects. At the end of time, they envision God taking out his clipboard and counting up the scores. Too many black circles and they’re on their way to hell; lots of pretty red circles and they get a harp and their own private cloud. Wrong.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” – Ephesians 2:8-9
God doesn’t rate folks the way we rate refrigerators. In fact, only one person has ever really passed all His “consumer” tests – Jesus. The good news is that as Christians, we get His score beside our names. We get His top rating, even though on our own we run about as well as a refrigerator with a bad compressor.
We may be ugly, scratched, dented, and worn out, but in God’s eyes, if we’re trusting in Christ and not in our worthiness, we’re a “best buy,” a real treasure, with value and beauty beyond measure. That’s what the amazing grace of God is all about.