Drafts & Tape

I was at the chapel on Wednesday making teas for whoever came to visit. It was a cold day, and there was some intermittent snow. The heating I turned on, but I just could not get the room to stay warm. I kept on my coat, and thought myself growing soft in my dotage. At 5.30, I saw the problem: a small hole in one of the old windowpanes. The deacons have been duly contacted to consider its replacement, and I put sticky tape over it, several times. This has the effect of reducing the draught, but cannot be a long term solution. The tape will peel off, and the hole shall remain. Indeed, snow was forecast for the morrow and that would reduce further the tape’s effectiveness.

When people attempt self-improvement or personal reformation, they usually fail. The equivalent of sticky tape merely keeps out the draughts, offering some external relief but little by way of internal change. Christ, on the other hand, offers us a new nature, the indwelling of His sanctifying Spirit and, eventually, a new body without sin and its drafty, freezing effects.