In the early part of the 20th century there was probably no more exciting and lethal place to be than an Edwardian home – exciting because of the increasingly widespread use of electricity, and the numerous appliances that could use it; and lethal because no one really understood quite how dangerous this new power was! Bare cables were laid around the home without the benefit of fuses or circuit breakers, and single sockets were frequently overloaded to the point of combustion. Some inventions were simply accidents waiting to happen, for example the electric tablecloth into which lights could be plugged. The upside was you could see what you were eating, the downside was if you spilled your drink it would probably be the last thing you did! Very quickly Edwardians learned to treat this new power with respect, and the discovery of a suitable insulator couldn’t come too fast.
In a similar way it is wise for us to realise that the God revealed in the Bible is a God of both profound love and perfect holiness. The former means that we are invited into a relationship with Him of great intimacy and power that utterly transforms our lives; while the latter means that we dare not approach His holiness unprotected by the grace and forgiveness we find in Jesus.
