Hide and Seek

 For the Lord your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.  ~ Deuteronomy 31:6

A familiar lump under the covers!

 Several years ago, my then-5-year-old and I were finishing his usual bedtime scenario one evening. Teeth were brushed, the Bible story was read, and the race began up the stairs to bed.  I purposely held back, as I always did, making certain he would win the race.  Cameron flew down the hall, around the corner, and disappeared into his room.  As I entered, the usual lump appeared under the covers in the lower bunk, complete with the slight movement of silent giggles.  “Mom, try to find me!” came the familiar sing-song phrase. 

I began my routine.  “Let’s see, where could my boy be?  Is he in the closet?  No.  Behind the door?  Not there either.  Hmm.  Where is Cameron?”  This time, instead of my usual, “There he is!” and sudden tickle attack on his bed, I tried something new.  I said, “I give up.  It’s just impossible.” 

Silence.  No more wiggles or giggles under the covers.  Then a quiet, serious reply:  “Mom, all things are possible with God.” 

Though his bedtime routine had been disrupted, my son’s words reminded me he knew it was not only possible to find him, but that I would never give up looking.  He knew I would never leave him.  He trusted I would always seek after him, always find him, always wrap my arms around him with tickles and love as I held him close. 

The unwavering assurance a child hopes to find in his parent is the assurance we always have from our loving heavenly Father.  Our attempts to hide from God are no more successful than this child’s attempts to hide from his mother.  The Lord seeks after us and finds us, even as we attempt to hide under the dark covers of our sin.  “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)  Jesus’ atoning sacrifice for our sins assures us we are forgiven, and He will never leave us nor forsake us.  He chooses us as His own dear children and wraps His arms of love around us. All things – even the salvation of sinners like you and me – are possible with God in Christ Jesus.

Dear heavenly Father,  I know I cannot hide from You under the dark covers of my sin.  Thank You for seeking after me and finding me; for sending Your Son as the atonement for that sin by His death and resurrection; for wrapping Your arms of love around me and holding me close.  In Jesus' name I pray.  Amen 



He holds you close...



Healed

She took a risk. Desperate for healing, she reached out and touched the hem of His robe. See this miraculous event through the eyes of the woman, in a dramatic retelling that I have written based on Mark 5:25-34.

Pain. Humiliation. Loneliness. Were these what drew me there – into the crowd – to the Teacher? The risk was great, I know. Would someone recognize me and shout, “Unclean!”? Desperation led me to go anyway. Desperation and hope.

Uncontrolled bleeding marked me unclean for twelve years. Twelve long years of suffering, shunned by my community; cast away from my family. According to the law, if I were to even touch another person, I could be charged with defiling them. I had tried everything; the doctors held no cure for me. My options were gone; the money was gone. The bleeding grew worse. And then I heard about Him. Jesus. They said He was healing the sick. They said He was performing miracles. And a miracle is what I needed. I believed that the Healer – the Miracle Worker – could make me well again.

So I took the risk. I entered the crowd. There were so many people pushing and straining toward Jesus, pressing against Him. Some called out, “Master!” Others cried, “Teacher, heal me!” So many people in pain. Could they be as desperate as I? Coming up behind Him in the crowd, I crouched low and buried my face in my cloak. I knew that if I could just touch Him…if I could reach far enough to feel the hem of His robe – just the fringe of his garment – I would be healed. So I stretched out my hand. And then…something indescribable happened. Just as the tips of my fingers touched the edge of His robe, my body felt immediately different. Miraculously, the bleeding stopped. I was healed!

Though the crowds continued to press around Him on every side, the Teacher suddenly stopped and stood still. He turned around, a knowing expression on His face. “Who touched me?” He asked. His closest followers shook their heads in confusion at Jesus’ question, stating what appeared to be obvious: “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’”

I was terrified. My Healer knew it was me. That I was the one who reached out in desperate hope and touched the hem of His robe. I shouldn’t have even been there. But then, I could no longer imagine NOT taking the risk; not coming that day; not receiving His healing. Still, I was afraid to have the people look at me because I knew how they had looked at me for the past twelve years. But at that point, I could no longer hide.

Trembling, I approached Jesus and fell at His feet. The eyes of everyone in the crowd stared upon me as I told Jesus the whole truth – why I had touched Him and how I was healed instantly! His eyes, unlike those of the crowd, looked on me (on me!) with compassionate love. “Take heart, daughter, your faith has made you well.” With these tender words, I knew I had received healing – body and soul – by Jesus’ power, whose grace covered me and made me whole – forgiven and clean! And He called me “daughter” – a child of God and an heir to His kingdom! His words proclaimed to me and to everyone who heard, that my shame and my sin were taken away, replaced by healing and hope in my Jesus – my Healer – my Savior.

Check out Matthew 9:20-22;  Mark 5:25-34;  Luke 8:42-48

Are you living in loneliness or pain? Perhaps you have never been cast out or called, “unclean,” but you may know the hurt of isolation or the pain of chronic illness. Cry out to Jesus. Reach out your hand in hope to the One who knows your pain and hears your every prayer. Fall at the feet of the One who fills your loneliness with His presence and His perfect peace. Hear the tender words of the One who claims you as His own dear daughter and looks on you with compassionate love.

Though we may not understand the purpose to our struggles or the reason for our pain, and perhaps we wait even today to receive physical healing according to His will, we can TAKE HEART that our Jesus – our Savior – provides us with the ultimate healing. Stained by sin, we are unclean. But our heavenly Healer reaches out in love and covers us with His cleansing grace! We are forgiven, filled with hope and faith! “Daughter, your faith has made you well.”

Be Still

It was a lovely little restroom, tucked between the lobby and the lounge of a beautiful resort. I had accompanied my husband to a church workers’ conference, taking advantage of a quick get-away opportunity. He was attending meetings and I was on my own, exploring the resort complex. During my stroll, I ducked into this small restroom, enjoying the relaxed pace and the welcome break from my hurried life that affected even the most basic necessities like restroom time! Uninterrupted. No one hollering, “Is dinner ready yet?” No one holding me to a schedule. No dog barking; no phone ringing; no soup boiling over on the stove.

Then, in the middle of my restroom respite, everything went black. I was surrounded by sudden and complete darkness. I couldn’t see a thing. Blinking hard, I wondered for a moment if I had gone blind. Then I guessed that perhaps the power had gone out. I sat completely still, listening for commotion in the lobby. Nothing out of the ordinary. Oh dear. What could be wrong? (And where was the toilet paper roll, anyway?) As I sat in panicked silence, my mind raced through options. Should I call out for help? How was I going to make my way out of here and to my room? If I was blind, I was going to need to learn to feel for things in the dark, right? So I slowly reached out my hand. And PRESTO! Light flooded the small room once again. The motion-sensitive lightswitch was triggered by the movement of my hand.

All at once three emotions hit me: RELIEF (I was not blind, after all!) EMBARASSMENT (I mean, really! I was panicking over a motion-sensitive light that was just doing its job.) HUMOR (For obvious reasons, the giggles hit me hard! I almost wanted to tell my story to the front desk staff. Almost.)

All this happened because I actually sat still – long enough for the lights to go out. Amazing! That would never happen at home, would it? Not likely, since 1,500 priorities vie for my attention on any given day and I must be on-the-move if I want to accomplish them all. (The only time I am completely still is when the lights are out, because it’s the middle of the night and I’m ASLEEP!) Was the Lord using my silly incident on this day to remind me to simply slow down? To redirect me to make time for the true respite that only He can give? To simply BE STILL before my Savior?

I walked to my room and pondered this. I pulled out my journal and my Bible and I began to write: “Help me to focus on You…to be still and let You speak to me…” As I sat completely still, listening for the Lord, He spoke to me through His Word. “Be still and know that I am God…” (Psalm 46:10) “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Jesus’ words in Matthew 11:28)

  

Perhaps we have been on-the-move for so long that we wonder what will happen if we stop. Will the “lights go out”? Will we panic? Will we call out for help? Without God’s guiding hand upon our lives, we grope about in spiritual blindness, managing to make our way here and there as we labor, but struggling for lack of direction and failing to find rest. In His amazing mercy, our Lord Jesus calls us to come to Him. To rest in His forgiveness, in His presence, and in His Word. We reach out our hands and PRESTO! His light floods the darkness and we realize He was with us all along. He enables us to BE STILL, and He gives us rest.