Have you ever sold a car on your own, or perhaps a couch, or even a home and added the tag line…,” as is?” Whatever condition your item is, you are not repairing or refurbishing it first, you are selling it just as it is. God loves all of us unconditionally, so He sees us and accepts us, “as is.” Your sale items might have a ding or dent or need major refurbishing AND we in truth, are also flawed.  We are sinners and will never reach perfection in our life time, but being AS IS, God welcomes us into His loving arms.

        The BEST part is we don’t have to stay AS IS, we can step up our efforts to improve.  We will never be sin-free, but we can learn from our Lord about better paths to take.  We can lean on Him and seek knowledge of Him and His ways and strive to live improved lives. Our label will still say AS IS, even as we grow in Him. God accepts us in any condition along our journey to improving our relationship with Him. God gives us grace.  We must learn to realize grace is a “gift.” 

        Dr. Seuss had a book, Sneetches, about a group of yellow-bellied bird-like characters with stars. There were also those who didn’t have the stars, but wanted them.  The book is a delightful, thought-provoking book about prejudices, The Sneetches learn that “stars” did not make them better and they learned to get along.  We should not see ourselves in the Sneetches position because unlike the Sneetches, we all wear the AS IS sign.  Not one of us is better than the other.  As believers we are learning and growing in our faith journey to seeing our Lord. Thank Him for accepting you AS IS and for giving you His gifts of forgiveness, grace and mercy. Keep on growing in Him.

Jill