The Covering – Part One

Psa 32:1 “Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered”

I live in Minnesota and one of my favorite seasons is Fall. After a hot summer, cooler air feels good. The air is crisp and refreshing, the humidity low, the colors in the trees breathtakingly beautiful, just over all wonderful. People are out walking and running more and the footballs are flying through the air. I’ve also noticed that many people open their windows at night. They let the cool air in and they cover up. They snuggle under big down comforters to stay warm. It feels so good!

Being covered is supposed to be a wonderful thing. Getting under the covers is supposed to be something comforting. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, they became aware of something they had previously been able to take for granted – God’s provision. When they sinned they immediately discovered they were naked. At this first step of their new form of dependency upon God, they needed help with their nakedness. God covered them. Gen 3:7 says, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.”

A covering covered their nakedness. It covers our also. Our relationship with Jesus does that. The blood He shed upon the cross in dying for the punishment for our sins covers and washes us so we that we become presentably righteous before God. That covering is a precious thing.

Psalm 91:4 says, “He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge.”

An article in National Geographic several years ago provided an interesting picture of God’s wings. After a forest fire in Yellowstone National Park, forest rangers began their trek up a mountain to assess the inferno’s damage. One ranger found a bird literally petrified in ashes, perched statuesquely on the ground at the base of a tree. Somewhat sickened by the eerie sight, he knocked over the bird with a stick. When he gently struck it, three tiny chicks scurried from under their dead mother’s wings. The loving mother, keenly aware of impending disaster, had carried her offspring to the base of the tree and had gathered them under her wings, instinctively knowing that the toxic smoke would rise. She could have flown to safety but had refused to abandon her babies. When the blaze had arrived and the heat had scorched her small body, the mother had remained steadfast. Because she had been willing to die, those under the cover of her wings would live.

I hope this illustration encourages your faith today to thank God that He for being a covering to you. Let your faith reach for that covering and bring you confidence in His desire to protect and watch over you as you hide in the only real protection and covering this is offered anywhere – “under His Wings…” More later…

In His Love,

Pastor Tim Burt

http://readfreshmanna.blogspot.com/