There is a Goodness to God and a Curse to the Numbers

isn't there?

a patience...a kindness...a gentleness...a graciousness...an other-worldly love that is so very different from what we normally experience in this life.

it's more than a "get out of jail free" card. it's more than being excluded from punishment...it is a grace-filled offer of relationship with God.

it is an offer of a relationship that could not exist otherwise. it is a door with no outside handle or lock being opened to us and for us.

hmmm...kind of like the hatch in season one of lost.

locke and boone "accidently" come upon a metal hatch...a bunker buried deep in the ground with hurley's cursed numbers etched into the side.

after excavating it, they see that it has a door, but no handle or opening device of any kind. they begin trying to open it in various ways...banging it, beating it, using a device that is based on the game mouse trap. nothing works.

they don't know what is inside...they just want to get inside.

for some of them it's the mystery of what could possibly be inside.
for others it represents a way off the island.
for others it's a safe place to hide from the bad(?) guys.

but, regardless of why they want in, it is impossible to get in.

it begins to affect locke and, filled with despair and confusion, he beats on the hatch, begging for an answer. at that moment a light from inside the hatch goes on. we later find out desmond turned on the light. also filled with despair and ready to kill himself, he heard locke's pounding and viewed it as a life line...help is on the way.

in the end, they blow open the hatch. it is an "unnatural" or unintended way to get in. and in the end, they become slaves to what is inside.

there's a great metaphor here...

God's vast, immeasurable, indescribable, wonderful, amazing grace is offered to us. but when we seek entrance to it in any way other than in the intended mannner (humbly, contritely)...we become slaves to religion.

when we seek God to get out of the trouble we're in. or to gain something we don't already possess...or to get rich...or for any other like reason...we don't get the real thing...we don't get His grace, His unmerited favor.

we're stuck with a cheap imitation of relationship with HIm...pushing the numbers in obedience bc it will be the "end of the world" if we don't.

what are you settling for in life? what is the nature of your relationship with God? are you pushing the numbers in fear based obedience, or are you enjoying His presence?