I’m still thinking about yesterday. It was the little Desperado’s day in court. The outcome was Spectacular. “Forever, not guilty”. Who knew? God knew before He created the universe. He knew all things then and wrote them down in the Book Of Life. Each day that arrives is simply another page turned over, a new day every morning, perfectly matching the story on the page written in Long Hand by God, called His Eternal Decree. Each day the Son reads it out loud and it appears Word for word, by the Power of the Holy Spirit.
As the prosecutor was reading the exhausting indictment against the little Dumbo lamb yesterday, it reminded me of 
my early experiences with “making my confession.” For the first few years, it was mostly “making up my confession”. What does a little seven-year old lamb know about “sins”. . .except what he’s been told? It’s way over our heads. However, we all knew that it was important to “keep a clean slate”, so I confessed my sins regularly and watched the priest pull the plastic sheet up from my soft heart of wax, and like magic . . all my sins were gone. My little conscience, clean and clear. . .for a while. Only for a while.
It got to the point that I had to fabricate them in the confessional. My favorite was, “I talked and laughed in church ten times.” I am smiling and chuckling about it right now. Another trusty sin was, “I was disobedient to my parents seven times.” My father certainly reacted to me like a was a disobedient son, so there seemed to be some good ground for that one. And there were others, all too silly to even mention. My experience with confession changed as I got older and was introduced to the variety of laws that we live under. “Under” . . .a pregnant word for the sheep. But Oh, what a bundle of Joy when the new birth arrives.
In the later years in grade school we all had to memorize the Ten Commandments. I had the impression from my teachers that memorizing them was going to empower me to keep them reasonably well, but not perfectly. In high school, I remembered the seven cardinal sins by using the acronym PELAGUS. . .Pride, Envy, Lust, Avarice, Gluttony, Usury and Sloth. I’m thinking that by the end of my senior year, I had committed every one of them, over and over.
Laws after laws, after laws. Laws for living right, laws for living wrong, laws for children, laws for parents, laws for partners, laws for driving and most importantly, laws for pleasing God. Just do the best you can. Put your best foot forward. Knuckle down, you little knuckle-head sheep. My Lily is an expert on the Law. She’s been through the school of Life, and graduated from the school of law. . . and now she has an Advanced Degree to teach others. Her scent of Heaven is filling the air. “Yes, Love?”
“It is written that no one is right-minded, no not one. There is no one that understands what the Law is really about. There isn’t anyone who really is pleasing God by trying so hard all the time to keep His rules. I know that it seems right and that it makes total sense to the sheep, until they are taken to court, bound hand and foot, unable to raise even an eyebrow to keep one of His Perfect rules. Yes, they are Perfect Rules intended to be kept, Perfectly. But everyone has gone out of the Way and what they do is unprofitable and imperfect. What they don’t know is that Perfect God is only pleased with what He does Himself. Infinite Perfection on display for the universe to see.
Before they were set free from fear and guilt, the lilies and the Dumbos, the eagles and the sailors, all of the firemen and newbies. . .every one of the outlaw thieves were stealing His Thunder. Without knowing, trying to match His Perfection. Trying hard to get credit or take credit for what He alone Possesses. . .for what He alone has already done for them and in them, and through them. He is the Vine. They are the branch. In Union with Him, they bring forth much fruit. Perfect Fruit. The Fruit of His Spirit. Apart from Him, like a branch cut off from the vine. . .they can do nothing Good, nothing Perfect.”
The sheep are now under a new law. The Law of Love. The Law of a Life that God alone possesses. The Life of His own Son, in Whom the sheep live and move, and have their very own being. A branch that bears Divine Fruit. . .Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faith and Self-control. God, Himself in the sheep’s clothing, keeping the law Perfectly for him. No more stealing His thunder. Always giving credit where credit is due. To God be the glory for the things He has done, for His little flock of sheep.
All, freely given. All, freely received without payment or cost. All of Grace from God’s Eternal Love. All free. . .even to the worst of sinners.
A Good Moment 