Covered in the Blood

She had taken a most ungraceful tumble at home, landing in a very unladylike position with her legs folded under her in such a way that she could not get herself up.  A lovely and very graceful woman, her composure was miffed a bit more when she realized she had a freely bleeding wound on her head, and it was quickly making a terrible mess.  As she struggled to get up, the question of what to do about the inability to get up and who to call lost importance beside the question of what to do about her clothing.  To put it delicately, she was lacking a bit. 

She decided in no uncertain terms that she was not calling her daughter.  At last, her husband came in from outside and decided in no uncertain terms that he was calling 911. When they arrived, the wound was cleansed and somehow she managed to convince everyone that it was safe for her to stay at home.

As she told me about her little adventure, we talked about the clothing difficulty and the arrival of the rescue team.  Secretly, I was thinking I would have been mortified.  With the sweetest expression you can imagine, she smiled, waved her hand, and said, "Oh, that was okay.  I was covered in all the blood."  We laughed a bit at that, but I can't help remembering how being "covered in the blood" somehow made her appearance less troublesome, less embarrassing.

One day, we will all stand before the Judgment seat of God, and it will be a much more difficult place than lying on the floor before an ambulance crew.  We will be unrobed of our pretense, our pride, and our arrogance, and we will be seen exactly as we are, unrobed in a sense by the exposure of our sin and our shame.  Mortifying will not begin to describe the experience before Almighty God.  

The only way to survive the Judgment is to be covered in the blood of Jesus.  Scripture tells us that death is what we deserve because of our sin, but we can survive the experience of judgment before God because of the blood of Jesus, who has purchased and freely given us the gift of eternal life.  We don't deserve it.  We can't earn it.  We can't even purchase it. We simply have to be covered by the blood of Jesus, which settles every score and soothes every wound.