No Condemnation

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus."  (Romans 8:1).

"What in the world do those words mean?  They make no sense to me," I thought. God is perfect and all-knowing so of course He would keep a complete, detailed list of all my wrong-doings and if  He was anything like my childhood family He would rehearse those shortcomings publicly at the most inopportune moments.  "How can you say, 'there's no condemnation?'"

I was praying for a clear understanding of those words when one morning my husband, Jim, called out to me and said, "Hey listen to this!"  In between bites of his morning oatmeal and strawberries he explained, "the fire department is going from house to house checking people's smoke detectors." My first reaction was, "Oh no, we'll fail!"

Jim went on to tell me the article explained that if the fire department members came to your house and found your smoke detectors in working order, you received a gift certificate for a pizza from the local pizzeria.  If the smoke detectors were missing or not working they installed working ones--no condemnation!  I get it now.

God comes into my life, looks around and for all the things that are going well, we celebrate.  For the things that are wrong, He says, "here, let me help you with that."--no condemnation, just love!