The Waters of Belen

An image comes to mind whenever I think of how God sees sin. I am taken back to about a year ago when I had my first taste of the jungle. Iquitos, Peru is a city located right on the Amazon river, and at the river's edge, there is an area of town known as Belen. (I remember finding this name ironic since it is the Spanish translation of Bethlehem.) Belen is home to the poorest of Iquitos' occupants. It is literally on the river with houses that float. The delta-like area rises and falls each season with the river bringing the houses up with it. The water is the street, yard, playground, and common area of the community. It is also the sewer. Belen's water is filthy. It stinks. It literally made me gag the first time I went out on a boat from the pier to a home where we held a children's program. When I thought about all that went on in the water, my heart went out to the children who happily swam and played in the filth.

I think that must be how God feels toward us when we indulge in sin. He knows how filthy it is and how bad it is for us, and He is saddened that we choose to remain in it. Unlike the children of Belen, we have a choice. God has saved us and brought us into His "Boat". We don't need to remain in the filth of sin we were born into. When we choose to swim in it after our eyes have been opened to it's filth, we are like fools who would put on their nicest clothing and dive into sewage.

I find myself thinking of this a lot lately as God has confronted me about some areas of sin in my life. I am going through Romans, and I am being awakened to sins I didn't realize I committed. If I remain in them, I sadden God, because He has so much better for me than the sewer I was pulled from.