1984 and The Mercy of Jesus

I'm listening to George Orwell's 1984 right now. As the story was playing yesterday, there were a few lines of dialogue that struck me as really an amazing picture of the mercy and acceptance of Jesus when we finally turn to him.

At this point in the story the protagonist, Winston Smith, is just starting to take his first chances at going against the totalitarian designs of The Party and Big Brother. He lives alone, abandoned by his wife who chose The Party over him. He hasn't had a conversation in years that wasn't laced with Newspeak or supervised by The Thought Police. And then a woman he works with, Julia, passes him a note saying "I love you". They arrange to meet in private, out of the long arm of The Thought Police and it's then Winston's starts this amazing conversation:

"Now that you've seen what I'm really like, can you still bear to look at me?"
"Yes, easily."
"I'm thirty-nine years old. I've got a wife I can't get rid of. I've got varicose veins. I've got five false teeth."
"I couldn't care less," said the girl.

Isn't that exactly how Jesus treats us when we come to him, embarrassed and ashamed of just how desperate our situation is? It's not that He denies the flaws; it's that He chooses to see through them and into the person He always intended us to be. That is what amazing grace is all about.


Note: I would not carry this analogy throughout the rest of the book. But that's the beauty of walking with God and listening to Him. He can take a single line of dialogue, or a lyric from a song, and speak through it, regardless of context. It's only we who insist on everything making perfect sense. He just wants to love us and speak to us