Words of Faith

I have a confession to make. Not all of the gifts I gave to my children this Christmas were for them. We had to make a compromise on one of them. I figured that if it is going to be blaring through the house, we would have to reach a happy medium in the music selection. Somewhere between my Sheila Walsh and their Audio Adrenaline. Point of Grace fit the bill- not only in the house, but also on the road to work. Their music blends the sound they are famous for with the lyrics and message that God is famous for. One song in particular, Heal the Wound, points out some interesting and thought provoking truths about God’s dealings with us.

We all, at some point in time, wish that we could “rewrite history” and especially those sins and mistakes and waywardnesses of our past. Take it all and wipe it from the record! That is what the scriptures say that God does with our lives when He makes us a new creation. He heals our wounds. However, as the lyrics of the above mentioned song also points out, he leaves the scars. The wound of our sin is cleaned, washed, wrapped in the healing oil of the Holy Spirit, and when the pain is finally gone, the wound healed, what remains is a scar. A scar that not only reminds us of how merciful the Lord is (as the song states) but also of where and what the Lord rescued and delivered us from. The scar reminds us of our tendency toward sin, and of specific sins that have entrapped us, and that remembering helps us not go there again. Living with a scar helps us to go forward with the Lord, and not back.

If God were to totally erase our past from our memory, we would soon become prideful, boastful and have the idea that we are not so bad after all, in fact we are pretty good… wonderful actually, and we don’t really need any help or a Savior after all. We are an excellent creation and can handle life on our own quite well, thank you. But our scars tell a different story. They remind us of who we can become if left to our own devices. The scar does two things; it keeps me from going there again, and reminds me of the price that Jesus paid for my sin.

If we look at Jesus himself, why did the Father choose to leave the scars on Jesus’ physical body? (See Luke 24:39, and John 20:27) Jesus tells Thomas to put his hand in the scars in his side and the nail holes in His hands. (I think pierced ears, only bigger and in the hands.) I think the Father left the scars on Jesus’ body to again remind us of the great price paid for us- not to condemn us, but so that we might know the greatness of the sacrifice made for us and the depth of LOVE of the Godhead for us to go through this plan of salvation!

When I picture a resurrected Jesus, I picture Him perfect and pretty- no spot or blemish- but the events just after the resurrection tell a different story. Jesus carried the scars of His suffering. We flippantly say that Jesus died for our sins- like He went to bed one night and “passed away” . He died on our behalf, a nice easy (albeit scary and not desired) death instead of us. We fail to remember (except during the week before Easter) that Jesus was CRUCIFIED in a very torturous and heinous death. It left scars- terrible scars- reminders of the punishment that we deserved because of our rebellion toward the Almighty. Jesus’ suffering on our behalf was HUGE. He didn’t just die for our sins, He was brutally and unmercifully tortured for those sins and bears the scars to remind us of the severity of our sins, the enormity of what we have been delivered from, and the extreme cost of our salvation. It is not something to be taken lightly, and it is of such tremendous importance that we cannot possibly set it aside or ignore it when relating with our fellow man on this earth.

God in His mercy heals our wounds, but leaves the scars, not only to remind us of His mercy and also the price paid, as well as keep us from repeating our mistakes, but to encourage us to follow closely to Him and to spread the greatness of God’s saving work to others with passion and intensity.

Lord, heal our wounds and help us and others learn from the scars and run to you.

What a blessing to be able to begin a new year of life here in this world. This holiday season has shown me many things, among which is the fact of how much parents love it when their children are home, and what a loss it is when they are not.

I know, we spend 18 arduous years teaching our children, training them up in the way that they should go, preparing them to become good citizens in their own right. We groom them to face the world on their own and leave home to fulfill their destiny. It is a long journey, and what pride and joy fill our hearts when they arrive at the moment that society has arbitrarily determined to be adulthood (that is a whole other can of worms) and leave the nest of home to venture into the wide unknown in search of their dreams.

It is a bittersweet moment also. They are filled with innocence, determination and idealistic ideas. We cheer for them, encourage them, support their dreams and decisions, but we also know how the world can treat innocence and idealism, and sometimes determination and even stubbornness get crushed under the weight. But as parents we strive to always “be there” when needed. We smile at their pursuits, laugh at their comedies, cry with their pain, and encourage them to keep taking one more step through their lives; and it is always good to hear they will be home for a visit.

As parents, we live to “kick them out” some would say, and once they are on their own, we live to have them back- if only for brief moments at a time. Evidence of this can be seen in joyful reunions at airports, train stations and bus stations, as well as front porches around the country. There is nothing like seeing the face of your grown child returning home, whether alone or with girlfriend/boyfriend or family in tow. Those are the moments that put a spring in a parent’s step- son (or daughter) is coming home! That is what thrills a parent’s heart- their children returning home, whether is has been a month or two, or a year; whether it has been a year or twenty. It is the hope of a renewed relationship that time and distance cannot touch that a parent longs for. It is what keeps us going.

Psalm 116:15 used to disturb me. Why would the death of someone- such a tragic event in life here on earth- be special and wonderful to our Heavenly Father, the One who gave that life to us to begin with? Why would the Lord and giver of Life be so willing to say that the death of His saints is a good thing? Then I looked at it from a parent’s perspective. The Lord forms us in the womb and knits us together so precisely, with gifts and attributes that will help us to fulfill our destiny for Him in this world. He meticulously creates us, puts us together, and then sends us out into the world to live our lives for Him. Our Heavenly Father has prepared us for the day. Similar to earthly parents, He “keeps in touch” with His written word, His Living Word, the Holy Spirit, and prayer. We communicate with our Father, we have relationship with Him, but there is always that barrier of sin, death and imperfection in our relationship. We are not totally home until He greets us on the front porch of Heaven and we see His joyous face matched by our own.

That is why I believe the death of His saints is so precious to the Lord. We finally get to come home. Home is a place of comfort, security, rest, warmth and acceptance. Things you would never think of saying or doing out in the world come tumbling out in a safe and enveloping atmosphere of HOME. You can be yourself, your real self, with ambitions and dreams, hopes and fears, insecurities and idiosyncrasies. You can be a little “off” but it is OK, because you are home. How precious it is for our Creator and Father to welcome us home, just as it is precious and joyous for us to welcome our own children home. In our Heavenly home, there is total peace, total joy, total contentment, total communication and relationship with our Father. We are finally with our true Family and Father. We have finished our work on earth and are finally HOME. How precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saint.

I will welcome home a son in a few weeks, if only for a short time, and I can barely wait. Given the atmosphere around the house recently as we prepare for this event, I wonder how things are going in Heaven, as the Lord makes the preparations He promised when He left this earth, to make a place for us and welcome us all home some day in the future.