SOTM 8: Pure?

8Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.

Mt. 5:8

This might be one of the most frustrating verses in the Bible. Remember the SNL skit where the fat guy speaks of the deplorable cycle he's in? "I'm fat because I eat, and I eat because I'm fat," he cries. Similar is the human condition itself. I can't see God because I have an impure heart. And I have an impure heart because I can't see God. To walk in the light is the only way to be purged, transformed, renewed. But it is that which must be purged that prevents us from walking in the light. We stumble in darkness crying out "create in me a clean heart" to a God whose face has been hidden from us because of our sin. It is at the cross that this cycle is broken. It is here that light penetrates a darkness that should hide it. It is here that as we turn in repentance we discover that we weren't the ones doing the turning. God help us.