This Thanksgiving, lots of air travelers are having to make the choice: scanner or patdown?
As I'm sitting here listening to all the opinions about Thanksgiving travelers' privacy, something in the Bible popped into my mind.
"Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account" (Hebrews 4:13). Wow. God sees what we don't want anyone else to see. The previous verse tells us that God sees and judges "the thoughts and attitudes of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12).
We're talking all the dark stuff. The dirty thoughts, the adulterous desires, the seething jealousy, the volcanic anger, the endless lies, the backstabbing words, the hateful prejudice, the hurtful selfishness, the egocentric pride, the long-harbored bitterness. "Everything is uncovered and laid bare."
Oh, we can try to rationalize it or minimalize it or call it by a nice name, but it is what it is. Sin against God. Sin against another person. Rotting trash is rotting trash, no matter how pretty the paper you wrap it in. And with God, it's all unwrapped. No secrets. We think, "No one's caught me." If God knows, you're caught. And He knows.
Our secrets are not only exposed to God, but they become the basis for us to be judged by God. "God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ" (Romans 2:16). King David said in one of his psalms, "O Lord, You have searched me and You know me...You are familiar with all my ways" (Psalm 139:1, 3).
My first reaction: "Uh-oh." My second reaction: "Good. One Person I don't need to hide anything from...I can't hide anything from." In fact, the first step to being free from the darkness inside is to say what the Prodigal Son said when he came home to his father: "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against You" (Luke 15:18). There's something liberating about being brutally honest about your sin - as you bring it into God's pure light. "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32).
Then comes the release we desperately need but so don't deserve. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins" (1 John 1:9). God stands ready to give us a spiritual shower called "forgiven" - and there's no better feeling than knowing that you're finally clean.
That forgiveness is no cheap thing. "He loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood" (Revelation 1:5). It took the shedding of the blood of God's only Son, Jesus, to pay the penalty for all my junk. A cross He did not deserve. An excruciating death. God's Son being cut off from God the Father because Jesus was carrying my sin. Jesus going through hell so I could go to His heaven.
But our bill was paid. All we have to do is take for ourselves what He died for, turning from the sin-darkness that has poisoned our life.
So, as I see those recurring pictures of the body scanners and hand searches, I'm thinking that God doesn't need any of that. He sees it all. And He knew that what was hidden in my dark places would blow up my life and my eternity. So He acted to defuse it with the most extreme act of sacrificial love in history. He absorbed the "blast" Himself so I could board the flight to His heaven and be with Him forever.
It is wonderful to live without fear of discovery. With a clean heart. With nothing to hide.