Sprinkled Wherever You Go

I just made my eight hour car trip over the river and through the woods to my family Thanksgiving gathering. And wouldn't you know it, the weather was not cooperative. Oh, it never really rained but it never really sunned (Is this a word?) either. You would think that traversing four states would bring some weather change. But, no.  It spat, sputtered, and drizzled the whole way.

In reading 1 Peter 1:1-2, I realize that being sprinkled on wherever I go is not a bad thing. And I'm not talking weather here.

The Christians in 1 Peter were being forced to move all over the place. But God didn’t leave them to wander off alone.

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,

in the sanctification of the Spirit,

for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:

May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

He had sprinkled them with His blood wherever they happened to land in their exile. Now this may sound kind of gruesome but not to their understanding of what this sprinkling meant. They had been used to the whole sacrificial offering sprinkling of blood thing initiated in Old Testament as the covenant promise from God. They had been told about the new covenant. Christ was the last and final all-encompassing sacrifice for their sin. The new covenant meant that they were sprinkled with Christ’s blood (not literally) once to atone for their sin that before had to be repeated over and over again with an animal sacrifice. No matter where circumstances took them they were covered by Christ’s love, grace, peace, and forgiveness.

I thought about this being sprinkled. The windshield wipers were on, off, slow, fast, or however the weather dictated. But there were always the sprinkles of rain wherever I went. I just imagined that this is what my covering for sin from Christ might look like. Always forgiven. Always covered. No matter where I am, always Christ is with me. Given grace and given peace wherever God leads me in this world.

And this sprinkling of grace and peace is multiplied on us. This word multiplied in Greek means maximum capacity. While I’m glad I only got drizzles while I drove, I’m equally glad that I had maximum capacity of grace and peace as I drove. And I have this increase of grace and peace all the time. Good to know and good to live in.

Sprinkled wherever I go

Sprinkled wherever you go

With a maximum capacity of grace and peace

Wherever we go

I think I'll look at sprinkles of rain differently in the future.