Wow! That was fast!  It’s February and Christmas has been over for more than a month. Unless you live in some of the neighborhoods around me (why ever take them down if you’re going to use them again next year?), Christmas decorations have been down since just after New Year’s Day. If you live in my childhood home with my loving parents, the decorations have been down since December 26. Seriously—THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS! I said they were loving; I never said my dad wasn’t a bit of a Scrooge.

Every year it’s the same thing. Hours and days are spent making the home festive and beautiful.  Each outdoor strand is hung perfectly symmetrical with the one next to it, the nearly four-foot-tall Manger Scene takes its rightful place at the center of the yard, and the inside looks and feels like a Christmas movie set. It’s truly beautiful. BUT…

With a few yanks on the light strands, a quick knocking over of the Manger Scene and little time spent on the inside tossing ornaments into boxes, it’s over. Christmas is gone. The beauty that was so carefully thought out, is gone in one quick afternoon. No trace is left.

The older I get, the more I’m finding life like my parents’ house at Christmas. I don’t always listen to Christian music, but I heard a song the other day and then again today. The first time I heard it, I heard the first verse, and zoned out for the rest of the song. It’s by a group called Casting Crowns, and the song is called “One Step Away.” That first verse that grabbed me and wouldn’t let me go was:

What if you could go back and relive one day of your life all over again

And unmake the mistake that left you a million miles away

From the you, you once knew

Now yesterday’s shame keeps saying that you’ll never get back on track

Did you catch that? Not “the series of mistakes;” “the mistake.” We can spend a long thought-out life making a beautiful reputation for ourselves and even for God. We can be on course for years and years, but then . . . one mistake can leave us a million miles away. That can happen even faster than my dad tearing down Christmas. A quick Bible story to go with that happens in Numbers 20 (entirely worth reading!), it goes into Moses’ mistake, which, despite leading the Israelites through the desert for 40 years, left him on the outside of the promised land looking in.

This can seem discouraging. We’ve all seen the people—shoot, I played with guys that are better people than me—who are more loving, more thoughtful, and more knowledgeable of Scripture, but they have that one mistake on their resume. There’s one thing that leaves them feeling and looking like they are miles away from God. I get to thinking, “If they can’t stay on track, it’s impossible for me to do so.”  

As I get into the Scripture and really take a look at Jesus and what He did, I think I’m supposed to feel discouraged. I think I’m supposed to feel like it’s impossible in order to make me look to the One who makes all things possible. I’ve spoken with quite a few men who have blown their reputation with one major mistake. Each of them has about the same statement at some point,  “It’s not like I set out to ruin my life.” As a matter of fact, there’s only one person who ever walked this earth that set out to ruin His life. His name is Jesus, and as Philippians 2:6-8 says,

“Who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” —Philippians 2:6-8

You see Jesus quite literally put Himself a “million miles away” from where He belonged. He did this so when we get to where we look and feel an impossible distance from God, we can get back in a single look to the Cross. I’m so glad I heard the Casting Crowns song again, because they nail it. While they do point out that we can make that one mistake that leaves us feeling so far away, they also finish the story with the chorus:

You’re one step away from surrender

One step away from coming home, coming home

One step from arms wide open

His love has never let you go

You’re not alone

You’re one step away

Praise God that we’re not like my dad’s Christmas decorations, which have to wait a whole year to be made beautiful again. We are quite literally one step away from hitting our knees and forgetting our tarnished reputation. The disappearance of our bad reputation is only the beginning; we then get take on Jesus’ spotless record.  

**This is a picture of my loving but slightly Scrooge-ish dad on December 26 without a trace of Christmas around… Bah! Humbug!

—Matt E Diaz

Check out Matt E’s profile on The Increase Baseball: http://theincreasebaseball.com/author/matt-e-diaz/

Matt E Davis is a regular contributor to The Increase and will be providing monthly articles and opinions.

If you enjoyed this article, please share: