Ripping off the bandaid to show the partially healed wound below& exposing it to the air can be very painful…yet somehow refreshing at the same time.
There are many wounds within everyone in various stages of healing.
At any given time, anyone of us could be dealing with aftermath or fall out…
your spouse cheats on you
a loved one has cancer
you lost your job
your car died unexpectedly
your husband switched careers
your parent passed away
your child is struggling to breathe
a friend or coworker starts being unkind
your furnace dies in the winter storm
you have constant pain
And it hurts.
How it hurts.
There are only two things I can tell you:
God’s been there.
He cares for you in the midst of it all.
God did not have an easy time dealing with humanity from the get go:
Adam & Eve cheated on Him with Satan.
The cancer of sin entered the world.
The battle for the Kingdom began.
People strayed from Him, in the back & forth dance of their lack of commitment & devotion, breaking His heart over & over.
They disbelieved His love.
He set out to prove Himself, this Maker of the Heavens & Earth, and everything in them both, to us… becoming fully human in a divine attempt to right the wrong sin and the enemy were reaping on humanity.
From the very beginning. His life was at risk as He was regularly oppressed by the establishment,
Persecuted and abandoned by the religious,
even put to death because people so feared change,
rejected by the very ones He had come to save.
Beaten, battered, ridiculed and tossed aside by humanity, Jesus hurt to the very core at His Father having to turn His back on Him on the cross, and Holy Spirit having to pull away due to the weight of all our sin.
I think He died from that broken heart of separation from the ones He loved, not only because of the sin He bore.
Jesus? He gets the pain we feel.
When the tears begin to flow from the wounds that run deep, He so understands.
And He offers you His nail scarred hand to draw you close, as He begins the dance of restoration He intended for us.
For His plan is to make us whole, to restore what life and sin has stolen or ripped from our grasp. To carefully rebuild our broken hearts to beat with His love flooding our veins, bringing us the life He designed for us to live from the very start.
God designed us to live in the garden of His Presence, where all we need and long for is found in Him.
Sometimes, the pain can speak louder than the hope we have within.
Jesus so gets that. Even He cried out asking God for help along the way while He was here among us.
He knows the beat way for us to make it through this life is at His side.
I needed the reminder again today that He has good plans for those He loves.
I know He loves me.
Oh how He loves you & I!
May we all be reminded of Your heart for us in the swirl of the aftermath that follows the storms.
May Your voice be the one we hear soaring above the noisy wind and wild waves.
May Your arms be the shelter we seek when our heart cannot take anymore, and we need comfort – no matter what comes our way.
May the aftermath calm as You speak Your love into our wounds, and carefully begin to heal us within.
KARLA LEES 