What comes to your mind when you see that word? For many years, I’m sorry to say, I cringed. When the word holiness was used about God, I thought it meant an attribute of His that was over-against His love. For example, God only had so much love, then His holiness kicked in and then there was trouble! When the word holiness was used about people, I thought about legalistic “holiness movements.” The people I knew that were part of such movements were like everybody else I knew but more smug about their religion. Over the past ten years or so I have come to see holiness in an entirely different way. I have repented. Today I think of beauty, goodness, compassion and righteousness all wrapped up in love that is infinite. I think of the awesome nature and uniqueness of God over-against all other gods. God is awe-some. But, my awe of Him is not fear in the trembling sense; it’s a fear of reverence, respect and wonder. And, since He said, “Be holy for I am holy,” I now realize that He wants me to be like Him! What a relief that would be! I want to be good, pure, right, full of love and good works and God wants to help me get there and, He sent a Counselor to help me. John Eldredge wrote a book titled, “The Utter Relief of Holiness.” I read it on vacation a few years ago and I realized how good God is to make us partakers of the divine nature. We were made to be holy, saved to be holy, and holiness is the destiny of all believers. Heaven is holy and only holy people will be there. The unholy wouldn’t like the atmosphere. I pray we’ll all see the “beauty of holiness” and want to get in on God’s ways of sharing His holiness with us.