A Plumb Line

Then he showed me another vision. I saw the Lord standing beside a wall that had been built using a plumb line. He was using a plumb line to see if it was still straight. And the LORD said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” I answered, “A plumb line.” And the Lord replied, “I will test my people with this plumb line. I will no longer ignore all their sins.” Amos 7:7-8

“ANY JOB WORTH DOING is worth doing well.” This is the kind of standard we often set for our kids. We want them to learn to finish a task while striving for excellence at every step. Doing so will serve them well throughout life. But we also know that our strict standards can become a source of great discouragement to our kids, giving them the sense that they can never please us. As much as our children need an ideal to shoot for, they also need grace for when they come up short.

That is what we’ve all received as God’s children. “We all fall short of God’s glorious standard” (Romans 3:23). The prophet Amos was given a vision of the way the children of Israel had not lived up to God’s rigorous standard. Amos saw a plumb line. A plumb line is a string with a weight fastened to the end that helps a builder keep the walls of a structure straight (or “plumb”). It works like a level, revealing if the walls are becoming crooked and thus vulnerable to collapse. Compared to the “plumb line” of God’s perfect law delivered at Sinai —the standard God expected of his people —the nation of Israel was completely crooked and destined for collapse.

A plumb line is an unrelenting measure, as is God’s law. And the reality is that we are hopelessly crooked. But the good news of the gospel is that Jesus comes to us and says, “So you don’t measure up? I do. I lived up to God’s standard perfectly. And by grace through faith, I will give you my own perfect record so that when God tests you with his plumb line, instead of condemning you for your crookedness, he’ll bless you for my holiness.” May such magnanimous love inspire us to extend grace to our own kids when they fall short!

Lord, help me to deal with the ways ________ does not live up to my standards with the same grace you extend to me. Your cross has become the plumb line by which my life is judged. You took the condemnation for my crookedness and give the grace that conforms me to your holiness.