And he's doing it even now.
Whatever you're going through, whatever you've been through, trust that the God who loves you is in control and is redeeming your life in it and through it. Trust that the God who loves you will sustain you as you seek to live redemptively with and toward others. Trust that the God who loves you will not forget you, that he's crafting beauty out of your darkness, that he's telling a great story in your life, an epic one that places you in a vital role in the story of the Body of Christ.
Our hearts, souls, minds, and bodies yearn for their redemption. Believe it is coming deep down in your bones, for it is your bones Jesus is promising to redeem.
Believe it not as inspirational but as factual. I am reminded of something Thomas Schmidt writes in his wonderful little book A Scandalous Beauty. Throughout several short meditations on the cross of Christ, Schmidt crafts brilliant and penetrating images of the gospel, none as penetrating as when he reflects on the loss of his young daughter, Susanna. In the conclusion of his book, in the Postscript to his collection of redemptive stories, Schmidt reflects on Revelation's promise of a new heavens and a new earth. He writes:
It matters to me that this is true, not merely interesting, not merely comforting. The chaos of this life, the flood waters, have closed over my head. Yet I choose against despair. I believe that death will one day die, that the love of God will prevail. In the meantime, even if the rest of my path lies in shadow, I will follow the Lamb in trust and in hope -- until I see Susanna again. It may be that faith is no more and no less a choice between the words "it may be so" and "I will live as if it is so."
Not far from my apartment, on a bluff overlooking the heaving sea, there is a marker on a new grave that bears the name of my only child and the following inscription:
With joy still deeper than pain
Gently flows the River
Where we shall meet again.
That is sentiment born of conviction, of hope in things unseen. And my hope is that you can share it. My hope is that somehow in the storms of your life, even if you are at the brink of death or if someone you love is, you are seeing the light of redemption in the Son of God who died to redeem life and who rose to conquer death.
Whatever you're doing, wherever you are, trust that the former things are passing away. Jesus the Redeemer is making all things new.
2 comments:
That was beautiful. Thanks Jared.
Thanks so very much. Schmidt's meditations are profound and so very true.
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