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.”

Age Defying

“Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?” Job 12:12

“Age-Defying,” my daughter’s friend, Journey, read the label aloud as we stood next to each other, applying makeup in front of the bathroom mirror. My bottle of foundation made this marvelous claim. “So how’s that workin’ for ya, Mrs. Burma?” Journey continued in her teasing tone.

Not missing a beat, I stroked my cheek while replying, “Beautifully! Why, I look one year younger every day that I apply it. Right now, I’m at age 25. Can’t you tell?”

“Uh, Yeah…right. Sure,” she laughed, along with my 17-year-old daughter, who now stood in the doorway, rolling her eyes at my ridiculous response.

“Don’t deny it…Defy it!” The Revlon© commercial tells me. Okay, so maybe I don’t look 25 anymore… maybe I can’t completely defy my age with my magical makeup. But the claim sure sounds good, doesn’t it? A closer look at my bottle reveals the ingredient, “Botafirm™.” Impressive. Any product containing the word “firm” appeals to a woman over forty (I don’t deny it!) and sounds like it’s worth a try. I found out this mysterious ingredient is a “patented blend” shown to reduce the signs of aging. According to the same commercial, a whopping “95% of women say it visibly helped relax expression lines instantly.”  My amazing make-up also “instantly firms skin” AND “completely covers flaws.”

Most of my life, people have guessed me to be older than I am. And that was great, up until about age 25 when some thought I was in my upper 30’s. (You can imagine where the guessing has gone from there.) At age 36, a store clerk asked me if I would be using my senior discount (ouch).

We become so sensitive about our age, don’t we? Enough to purchase products that claim to help us defy it, because we long to be younger. I mean, who wants to look their age? (Or act it, for that matter!) So I got to thinking, why would I wish to be younger?

(1)   No fine lines. Ah, but a closer look at my “expression lines” reveals years of such skin-stretching exercises brought on by laughter and tears, concern and grief, sorrow and joy.

(2)   Fewer flaws. Wait a minute. Though my flaws have changed in form from acne to age spots, they’ve always been present. The last I checked, my character flaws, my failures, and my flub-ups were just as numerous in my youth as they are now in my more mature years. Oh, for a product that could completely cover these flaws.

(3)   Smaller signs of aging. Ah, but some of those signs are telltale marks of experience, of lessons learned, of understanding and wisdom gained, all by the grace of God.

In His infinite wisdom, our Creator formulated you and me each uniquely with His “patented” blend: our appearances and our abilities, our personalities and our passions, our circumstances and our circles of influence are unlike any other. Christ alone completely covers all our flaws with His perfect forgiveness, purchased for us on the cross and at the empty tomb. I may not always possess the firm skin of my youth, but even better is the Firm Foundation I’ve found in my Savior.

Another birthday looms in the not-too-distant future. As I smooth a little “age defying” makeup over my face, I’ll giggle a little! More importantly, I’ll praise God for another year of life, completely covered by His grace…and I’ll try to act my age – neither denying nor defying it. I’ll continue to pray for wisdom and understanding as I search His perfect Word.