Devotional

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Galatians 5:1


    Growing up, one of the first gifts I remember receiving was a white jewelry box. It was just like my mom’s - only smaller - with three tiny white drawers one one side and clear glass revealing hanging necklaces against a pink velvet background on the other. I loved what that jewelry box represented, that I was a big girl now. 
    Only at the age of six, I wasn’t very diligent about hanging up my necklaces. Instead of placing them on the rotating divider, I would often place them all in haste into one large pile. As a result, the chains would become ensnared with one another, until my dad would sit down at the kitchen table with toothpicks, safety pins and a lot of patience to untangle them all. I wish I could say that I learned my lesson each time that he untangled the chains, but it took a long time to be careful enough to hang up each neckless individually. 
    Paul is speaking to the Galatians about not letting themselves become ensnared and tangled up in sin. Does this mean that they had the power to resist sin on their own? No. They needed Christ to be the one to untangle them and set them free. But then they did have a choice to make - would they go back to the yoke of their own ways or move forward with Christ. 
    Like my patient dad at the kitchen table, God is willing to untangle us again and again, but eventually we need to decide if we want to keep returning to life as we knew it - in all of its mess and snares - or if we want something different - a freedom from sin that can only be found in Christ alone. We cannot do the untangling, but we can choose to accept the grace and freedom that we have been given. 


Prayer:
    Lord, thank you for not leaving us in the mess which you found us and inviting us to being transformed by your grace. Amen.