Four Sides

Their are four sides to every life. The first side is the one you show the world; it's where you put your best foot forward, the carefully crafted public image we all hide behind. The second side of your life is the "private" side, the person that your family and close friends and co-workers see. This side is usually rougher than the front, since these people know the "real" you a little better. They sometimes see you at your worst and know how bad you can really be.

The third side is worse still, a hidden side, the image of yourself that you keep in your own mind. This side is rougher because it includes many hidden sins that you alone know about, the darker parts of your inner self that are carefully hidden from even those closest to you. Whereas your public and private sides exist in the minds of others, this side exists only in your own mind. It's a side of yourself that even you may not like, yet this side is not an entirely accurate picture either, for each of us has sins which we hide even from ourselves, sins we refuse to acknowledge. This dishonesty keeps the third side from being as flawed as it could be, though our self-deception is perhaps the greatest flaw of all.

Finally, we reach the fourth side. The fourth side is the image of you that God sees. Strangely, this side of you can be both the worst and the best side of all. It is the worst side because there is nothing you can do to conceal a single blemish from the piercing eye of God. Every sin, public or private, is revealed in all its hideousness here, laid bare before him. Sadly, even the sins that you refuse to see, the sins that your mind will not admit or acknowledge, are here in plain sight. No truer, more revolting image of you exists anywhere else in the universe.

By the miracle of grace, the fourth side can also become the most beautiful side, more perfect even than the carefully groomed public image of the first one. For as a believer, the blood of Jesus covers your sins like a fresh coat of gleaming white paint that will never crack, peel, or fade. Christ can make the fourth side of your life more perfect than any of the other three, simply because the other three sides are YOUR creation, and the fourth side can be HIS. And in Christ, when God looks at you he sees a perfection you could never attain on your own; he sees the perfect image of his own son.

What you cannot conceal, God is willing to overlook. What you cannot hide, God is willing to cover over. What you cannot overcome, God is willing to dismiss. But only when it is buried deep within the covering of his son's blood.