A line in the sand was a true challenge when I was growing up. Typically, you didn’t want what was on the other side of the line if you dared to cross it. It was a dare with dire consequences. Usually, the consequence was a person ready to fight. “Will you come meet me in battle,” was the challenge for young knights to see if their armor would hold by the strength of their nerve and determiniation. It was your hero self against the villain who came against you.

My daughter was a toddler some years ago. The line in the sand was the stove. It was the challenge because mom worked at the stove. Mom kept saying “No!” She spelled the word “H O T hot. Don’t touch because it will hurt you.” My daughter jumped the line in a moment that mom turned to get something from another counter. We all heard our beautiful child yelling “H O T  hot” as she ran around the room holding burned fingers in the air. Mom immediately came to the rescue with hugs, a bowl of ice water, and training efforts to assure that the little one would not do that again. The consequence of crossing the line was too severe. 

We are loved by God greater than we are loved by our mothers and fathers. We understand His love because we experienced the love of people who cared and sacrificed for us. We know we want this kind of sacrificial love because we have all experienced times when we didn’t have it. One example of love is from some battlefield warriors who experience such a strong sense of all-sacrificing care from their fellow warriors that they prefer the danger of the battlefield over the safety of home to have it. God is greater than all the levels of love we might ever experience from the deepest and most satisfying of any relationship we have ever held up as a standard of love and care.

God has drawn a line in the sand. He gave us ten commandments. He points to them and tells us that crossing that line is “H O T hot!” Failure to stay on the right side of the line will be painful to us. The line isn’t to punish, but to protect. It is mom or dad saying, “I don’t want you to be hurt. Crossing this line hurts. It will create sorrow and hardship in your life. It will damage you, your life, your relationships, all the good things I want for you!” 

Inevitably and predictably we jump the line in a moment we think He has turned His back. Inevitably and predictably we run screaming from our injury. Wisdom takes us screaming right to the one who warned us. He with the bowl of ice water, hugs and teaching, uses the moment to love on us and assure that we will apply this lesson to other warnings. He doesn’t want us hurt. He is there to repair the damage and care for us when we do hurt. 

The ten commandments are a pretty big line in the sand. It becomes easily evident that it takes someone far more than mortal to be able to keep the commandments. No one, born of this earth, has ever kept all ten faithfully. This line proves that we can’t stay on the right side of the line without help. The line pushes us into relationship with God. We are damaged every time we cross it, just like He says. We can’t do it without Him. We can’t heal from crossing the line without Him. The line proves that man with man’s greatest strengths and abilities aren’t enough. 

We aren’t alone. Jesus crossed all barriers, all lines in the sand, from heaven to earth, to provide us with the help we need, the healing we need, the comfort we need, and the teaching we need. Jesus is alive. The promised Holy Spirit lives in each believer working the redemption and restoration Jesus won on the cross and through His resurrection. We are truly loved by the line in the sand that warns us of death and danger and the living Jesus who walks with us through every adventure and misadventure, drawing us ever deeper into a healing, redemptive relationship with Himself. We are loved at every level.