Staying Angry

His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime.
Psalm 30:5

A number of years ago our kids were first learning to drive.  Ashley had taken the car out and was returning home in the evening.  A number of us had gone to bed or were in the process when we hear a loud crash coming from the garage.  I was the first to arrive on the scene and my first memory was of Ashley almost hysterically crying “I’m sorry”, “I’m sorry”.  Your brain takes a minute to process and my first reaction was to inspect the damage (my cause effect CPA brain).  You knew something was wrong but you really needed to actually see what it was before you could react any further.  She had taken a chunk out of the garage and had put a decent dent in the car.  I remember for what probably was a 10 or 20 second period where I was percolating up an explosion at her.  “Why couldn’t you have been more careful?”  “Who is going to pay for this?”  But as my mind processed further, I was faced with a truly repentant crying daughter who seemed genuinely sorry for her actions.  My mind in processing the ugly action was abhorred at the result but overwhelmed by love for the young woman in front of me.  All I could do was take her in my embrace and say it was ok. 

Such is but a mere glimpse of how God looks at the repentant sinner.  His anger has to be there.  The prophet Habakkuk says “he cannot look at sin with favor”.  But in the process of hating the sin, he loves the sinner so much that the act of sin is already forgiven and judged almost in an instant.  What we have forever is the love of the Savior.  This does not mean that sin does not have consequences.  Natural law would have to suggest otherwise.  But the deep love of the Father overshadows and dwarfs the action of the sinner.  “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us and cleanse us”.