Not Even Close

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oday was the day!  After a week of discussions, preparations, decisions, and brainstorming sessions, our dream of building a tree house would finally come true.  My best friend, David, and I had discussed building a tree house for a long time.  Occasionally we would talk about the project, dreaming about the design and what we would do there once we had built it.  Finally, we decided we had talked enough!  What we needed now was action and a firm resolve to build that tree house.

David had the perfect spot.  There was a large tree with thick, heavy branches located beside his house.  It was just begging us to build a tree house in it!  Our fathers had plenty of hammers, saws, and nails we could borrow.  What we needed now was wood.  This was a major concern of ours but it didn’t stop us from making our plans.  We were convinced we would locate some wood, it was just a matter of time.  Finally, the day before we began the project we found a stash of wood perfectly suited for the job.  All that was left to do was to get my father’s permission to use it.

Our family ran the local funeral home and every few weeks a shipment of caskets would arrive.  The caskets came in large wooden crates that were discarded once the caskets were removed.  David and I found a large stack of broken-down crates outside the funeral home’s garage.  When we saw those discarded containers, we knew we had found our wood supply for the tree house.  He and I went straight to my dad and asked for the wood.  My dad gave it to us.  We made plans to meet early the next morning and build the tree house.

When morning came, David and I met in my backyard.  We went to the funeral home and carted all the wood to his back yard.  After a few short hours of dismantling the crates, we determined we had enough wood to do the project.  We decided to build the floor first and then add the walls and roof.  We chose the best branch in the tree and set out to construct our masterpiece.

It wasn’t long before every kid in the neighborhood caught wind of what we were doing.  They came to David’s house with their fathers’ saws, hammers, nails, and sandpaper.  Everyone wanted to get in on the action.  What started out as a friendly project for David and me turned into absolute mayhem.  David’s backyard looked more like a war zone than a construction site.  Finally, the construction started but none of our plans turned out the way we hoped.  Instead of a tree house with several rooms and a nice roof, the neighborhood kids succeeded in building a seat. 

All the planning, all the dreaming, all the gathering of materials, and all the creativity in the end came to naught.  David and I had good motives.  Our plan was good, our hopes were high, we had the best materials, and we believed in what we were doing.  However, what we got wasn’t even close to what we had envisioned.  To make matters worse, David’s dad was not pleased to come home and find his tree full of nails.  He called David inside for a brief discussion.  When David came out, he informed us that the seat had to come down and we helped him dismantle it.

There is a great lesson for us in this story from my childhood.  Although David and I had good intentions and a good dream, the end result was disaster.  We had thought everything out, we had gathered the materials, and we had designed the tree house.  However, we neglected to recognize that neither of us had the know-how or the ability to build a tree house.  Without this ability, all our efforts, no matter how wonderful, were doomed to failure.

The prophet Isaiah understood man’s inability to live a life pleasing to God.  No matter how noble his thoughts, no matter how lofty his dreams, no matter how well intentioned his actions, man simply cannot please God on his own merits.  In Isaiah 64:6 we get a good understanding of how our actions stack up against God’s standards for righteous living. “We are all infected and impure with sin. When we proudly display our righteous deeds, we find they are but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall. And our sins, like the wind, sweep us away.”

What a sobering statement this is for us today.  Isaiah states here very plainly that all our efforts to live righteously are in vain.  It doesn’t matter that we have good intentions, that we perform noble acts, or that we give to worthwhile causes.  The Scriptures tell us that all our good works, all our good attempts, all our wonderful intentions, are counted as rubbish next to God’s requirements and standards for those who follow him.  Our works will never be good enough, our thoughts will never be pure enough, and our intentions will never be honorable enough to secure salvation for us.  There is no way we can earn God’s favor or his salvation. 

What, then, is left for us?  How can we ever hope to live a life that pleases God?  Is there any way we can be acceptable to him?  The answer is yes, by God’s grace.  Grace is receiving what we don’t deserve so that we can live a life that is pleasing to God and have a personal relationship with him.  When we were without hope and dead in our sins, God sent his son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty for us.  He did this because we could not pay it ourselves.  Our sacrifice would have been just like us, filthy.  Instead, Jesus sacrificed himself in our stead, making all those who receive him acceptable to God. 

In our own strength and on our own merits we have no chance of coming to God.  However, when we accept his grace and the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, we are made righteous before him.  With Jesus, we can enter directly into God’s presence.  Without him, we don’t even come close!