Read through the Bible in 2 Years: 2 Samuel 19

We live in an area of the U.S. that fully enjoys all four seasons of the year, hot summers and cold winters with beautiful springs and falls in the transition times. It’s actually one of my favorite things about living here. But, the problem is that our area isn’t accustomed to a week of below freezing temperatures and multiple inches of snow. My neighborhood’s streets are still covered with five inches of snow, and there’s no plow in sight. We’re staying home, along with everyone else in our area, and thanking God for a fridge and pantry full of food and a furnace to keep us warm.

This morning my son and I took advantage of the shining sun and a break in the snowfall to shovel our driveway. I used the time to teach him some things I’ve learned about shoveling, but I also used the time to meditate on some lessons God has been teaching me in 2 Samuel.

Trying to move 5-inch-deep snow is hard, back-breaking work, especially when your driveway is practically 100 yards long! The top few inches of snow were light and fluffy, but much of that bottom inch was packed down tight and hard to move. I encouraged my son to do a quick once-over first and move all that top layer off so the sun could do it’s work on that bottom icy layer. Then, when he’d come back ten minutes later, that lower layer would scrape off easily.

I started thinking about how often David (and others in 1-2 Samuel), (and me), hide under layers of white fluff, or under layers of sin. It’s only when that top layer is scraped aside that the sunlight can do its work. As long as we keep hiding, refusing to do the hard work of bringing our sin into the open, that icy hard layer remains.

On the other hand, if we take that first step of sweeping away that fluffy top layer, those easy to confess sins, but we refuse to deal with breaking up and shoveling away that icy crust of hidden sin that we don’t want anyone to know about, all our work is for naught because that lower layer is where the real danger lies. Those deep, hidden sins are what really make us slip and fall, and fall hard.

Heavenly Father, You are a good God and You want to free me from the hard, icy grasp of sin. Help me to bring into the light what I want to keep hidden in the dark. Help me to faithfully shovel away those “respectable sins” of covetousness and gossip that I can bring into the light those hidden sins of pride and deceit and fear and bitterness. In the Name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.