Cracked

It could have killed us…

I shiver at the thought.

It all happened two weeks ago. After receiving a call this summer, my husband scheduled an appointment. A man dressed in blue rapped on my backdoor.

“This way,” I said walking through the laundry room to our basement. “You’ll find what you’re looking for down the steps and to the left.”

A short while later the man trudged up the stairs. “Mrs. Skitt, there’s a problem that needs to be taken care of.”

I sighed, pushing up from up from my desk chair and shuffled through the dining room in my socks. How much is this going to cost us now?

“Jim,” I called to my husband. “You better come downstairs.”

Thirty minutes later my husband and the man in blue emerged from the basement.

“What’s going on?” It was supposed to be a simple check and cleaning.

“He’ll need to come back next week. We have a crack in our oil heater and he is going to check on a replacement part.”

Inwardly, I groaned. We just bought several tons of gravel to line the 500-foot long driveway to our house. What other unexpected expense were we going to get saddled with?

The following week, two technicians dressed in blue arrived as scheduled. My husband took the day off to work on refinishing our garage doors and to help facilitate the technicians.

The basement door opened with a squeak. My husband’s face looked drawn; his eyes somber.

“It’s worse than it first appeared. There was more than just a crack in our ten-year-old heater. There was a huge hole inside. It has been emitting carbon monoxide. Eventually the entire heater will need to be replaced.”

I gasped. “We and our boys could have died a silent death and never knew what hit us.”

“They fixed it. The part was even covered by warranty. All we have to do is pay for labor.”

Although I was not eager to pay for an unexpected bill from resources that are just not there right now, the situation could have been much worse - both financially and physically. Carbon monoxide, a silent killer could have claimed my family. But God’s intervention and my husband’s careful planning saved our lives.

Like a silent killer, unconfessed sin lurks in our lives waiting to kill us. When left unchecked, slowly the crack will widen until there is a gaping hole waiting to stake its claim.

The Bible says in First John 1:8, “If we say that we have no sin (talking about our sin nature), we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he (Jesus), is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Jesus is waiting for us to come to him and make things right. He will fix what is broken. If you’ve never before realized your sin separates you from God, confess that you need Jesus today, be sorry for your sin and God will forgive you and make your life new.

If you know Jesus as your personal Savior, take care of that daily maintenance that is needed before a crack of sin becomes a gaping killer hole in your life. God wants to restore you, won’t you come to him today and confess your sin? He is faithful and just and ready to forgive.

Live the adventure,