They are putting a new roof on our home. It was necessary to first remove the old one and when it was removed it laid bare the attic and all that is stored there. It is amazing how much a thin coat of shingles hides from view and as we looked through the slats into the attic we thought about how bare we must all appear to our heavenly Father. We all have a coat of shingles to cover what we are really like so that those who see us do not see the real us. With the new shingles all nailed firmly in place the house looks good again but we keep remem- bering how it looked while it was laid bare. God sees us as we really are and we need to always remember this fact.

Sometimes we may not even see ourselves as we really are, but we should. Paul tells us to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith. He asks the question, ”Know ye not your own selves?” Do we? Have we tried to nail a layer of shingles between us and our own faults so that we won’t even see what we know is really there?

Edgar A. Guest wrote a lovely poem entitled ”Myself” in which he says, ”I have to live with myself, and so, I want to be fit for myself to know; I want to be able as days go by always to look myself straight in the eye; I don’t want to stand with the setting sun and hate myself for the things I’ve done.”

It is a fact that many people literally do hate themselves for the things they have done. These people are to be pitied for they do not understand the joy of forgiveness as it is in Jesus. Many of the ills of the world are caused by their inner feelings of guilt which they have successfully hidden from the public by a thin coat of shingles. Behind this veneer there is rottenness, for the heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: Jeremiah asks, ”who can know it?” The answer of course is, God knows. As David pointed out, God knows our downsitting and our uprising. He understands our thoughts afar off.

We can never hide from God as Jonah learned the hard way. Edgar A. Guest continues his poem saying ”I never can hide myself from me, I see what others may never see, I know what others may never know, I never can fool myself – and so, Whatever happens, I want to be Self-respecting and conscience free.”

Without Christ we can never accomplish this but when we surrender our life to God, then we can do ”all things through Christ who strengthens us” and one of the most important things we can do is to be cleansed from all our sins. For as John consoles us, ”If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” It is only through Christ that we can ”have the answer of a good conscience toward God.” Paul talks about those who have ”their conscience seared with a hot iron” and this no more solves the rottenness inside than our new roof cleans up the mess that is in our attic. It is still there.

Through Christ we can have our sins forgiven and ”though our sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

Let us take heart knowing that the Lord exercises lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth and that if we seek forgiveness then God will have mercy upon us and will blot out our transgressions, He will wash us throughly from our iniquities and cleanse us from our sins.”