On Tinted Spectacles

These musings are brought to you by a "random" reference to rose-colored spectacles that I heard on the radio while driving earlier today :).

Perhaps you have, like me, heard the old addage about people hopelessly in love seeing things through "rose-colored glasses," or something along those lines. I've heard this refer to two different things: (1) an optimistic view of the world in general or (2) an optimistic view of their lover in particular. People in love tend to see each other in a rather optimistic, often unrealistic light, you might say. Love covers over a multitude of flaws ;-). Being a recovering hardcore cynic, I've been known in the past to roll my eyes at people who definitely seem to support the idea that "love is blind."

But one thing I've been pondering over the past several months is that there is a nugget of the Gospel in the silly blindness of lovers. Remember, human romance is merely a small picture of the Greatest Romance of all time: the romance between Christ and His church. If there ever was a lover who overlooked His bride's faults, it was Christ. He promised to remember our sins no more. Christ typifies "love is blind." He perfects it. He shows fallen humans what it truly means to love unconditionally and what it means to look upon His bride with great joy, overlooking her faults.

But, of course we must keep in mind that Christ does not merely cover His ears and hum in a vain attempt to "think positively" about His bride. He forgives and forgets our faults because He died to cover them. Ignoring our faults would not have been a sweet sentimental thought on His part; Christ went beyond sentimentalism and provided a way for us to be delivered from our faults. That is true love!

So how does this apply in human relationships? Well, first of all, we are commanded to spur one another on to love and good deeds. Just as Christ showed His love for the church by purifying Her, so we are to show love to our fellow Christians by exhorting them. And husbands are to be a type of Christ to their families (I don't envy you, men!). But also, as men and women, we look at each other through colored glasses - grace-tinted spectacles. The love that provided a way to forgive our sins is the same love that provided a way to forgive the sins of our brothers and sisters in Christ. We mess up big time (understatement of the year!), and Christ forgives us. So when our fellow Christians sin against us, the Gospel of Grace allows us to forgive them and remember their sins no more. Wow.

So in a sense, Christians are commanded to be silly lovers, and look at their fellow Christians through colored glasses - grace-tinted spectacles. How do we do that? By grace. The grace of God that forgave us is the same grace that allows us to forgive our brothers and sisters in Christ. Amen!

Forgiveness

I really appreciated this post on forgiveness that Ashley wrote over at Onward and Upward. Here are two good snippets:

The biggest thing of all: anything that Tina had done to me, had been done to
Christ. And Christ not only forgave but He paid the price for those sins. How
could I not do the simple act of turning around and forgiving her? It wasn't
easy, I don't think - is it ever? But a necessary step.

What I always love is how God brought things full circle. He took the girl who
used to torment me, and seven years later He used her to draw me closer to
Him.To me, that is the beauty of forgiveness.

Make sure to read the whole post!