Have you ever had to walk through a wall of curtains? Maybe you needed to navigate through some fabric to get into a room without a door, or tried to get through curtains onto a stage. I remember seeing some young family members once, sneaking behind some curtains along the wall, pushing them away so that they could get through, until they came out the other end.
Sometimes, it takes work to get through a doorway made of drapes. In all of the folds and layers, we may struggle to find the gap between two panels, and instead find ourselves surrounded by curtains that block our way. Unless you’re a comic, that’s definitely not the situation you want to be stuck in, when it’s time for your big entrance on stage!
Cloth isn’t the only thing that stands in our way as we navigate through life. There are plenty of other things competing to block our path or to obscure our vision, until we find the right path.
But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.
2 Corinthians 3:16-18 NLT
Things that get in our way include our preconceptions, which keep us from learning the truth. In addition, our pride keeps us from accepting help, when it tells us that we can take care things on our own. Somewhere between those two is stubbornness, where we would rather flail in the dark, getting even more tangled up in the “curtains” of this fallen world’s obstacles, rather than listening to God’s instructions that lead us towards the opening and the light.
Thanks be to God that He helps us get through, though. Not only do we have access to His Word (the Bible), but the Holy Spirit provides guidance in specific situations where we feel like we are in the dark. We just have to listen to God, and follow His instructions for getting out of the tangled mess that we find ourselves in. (And, when we don’t see the way out or aren’t hearing from Him at the moment, we can trust Him as we wait.)
God doesn’t always just help us find our way. Sometimes, He takes more dramatic action to break down the barriers between us and Himself, like the following events that happened when Jesus died:
At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart, and tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead.
Matthew 27:51-52 NLT
Through Jesus, we no longer have to fight (or try to earn) our way through barriers as we seek God, flailing our hands in front of us as we try to find an opening. The obstacle between us and God (which is the consequence of our sin, when we rejected God’s offer to be good, and instead chose inferior paths) has been torn apart. It is destroyed, obliterated, wiped out, and eliminated…as long as we accept Jesus’ completed sacrifice as the atonement for our sins, returning to God and accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
So, if you are foundering through the obstacle of sin, and it is both blocking your view of God and keeping you from getting back to Him, look to Jesus instead. He blew the walls wide open, as He conquered sin, death, and our need to remain lost. Don’t pick up the veil again and hide in it.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Those Who Sin Differently 