Wonderfully made.  Can a vessel hold both health and poison?  Am I capable of horrendous behavior while filled with the Holy Spirit of the Lord?  What is the appropriate balance of awful and excellent?  A painted, tainted-saint.  Is that like tarnished silver that just needs a good polishing to shine or is it perhaps beyond recovery?  I do not know the answers to these questions although the scripture appears clear on them.  How is such a thing possible?  How can question remain where effective answer has been provided?  I am left with a reality which I am not lithe to accept.  That it is me, who maintains a grasp upon residual wickedness.  I do not wish to see it go, as if it were some piece of memorabilia, independence or identity that held me to a glorious past.  The paradox of a man who wants eternity yet yearns for this world is a tragedy beyond comprehension.  The two cannot coexist, but perhaps for a time they can dwell together until one achieves dominance.  I am that resistant factor.  Father this truth strikes fear and awe to the heart.

Pondering why the husband carries the bride across the threshold?  This is the point of “new beginning”, a point where the husband joins his bride in a life “unachievable” alone.  The tipping point, the point of sufficient stimuli to produce change, the limen (conspicuously pronounced Lay-man) which means threshold.  To thresh – to separate the grains and seed by beating a plant with a flail or trampling.  I am sorry that definition gives me one of those epiphany moments that we can only get from a brief glimpse of the Almighty.

I get it Lord, this is not something that I can do myself.  Although I must first choose, just as any bride or groom, to entry the commitment of matrimony.  I have chosen Father.  Carry me across that threshold into my new life.  Separate the wheat from the chaff in my own life.  Bring forth my offering which may be acceptable in Your eyes.  Let all things previous pass away.  I yearn for that moment when this body becomes insufficient to contain the life within.  Praise Your Mighty Name, Lord Jesus.