Redeeming the Wrinkles

Seed:

2 Corinthians 3:18; Romans 8:18-25; 1 Peter 3:3-4; Galatians 5:22-26

Plant:

When I was talking to my mother yesterday, she said something to me that I can’t get out of my mind. I’ve been pondering it, and I thought I’d share my ponderings with you.

She was telling me about a woman who lives near her who has dementia. Although she and my mother are acquainted, when they saw each other the other day the woman said to my mom, “I don’t know your name, but I know you’re a nice person because your wrinkles go in the right direction.”

Although dementia is slowly robbing this woman of many things, it has yet to steal her ability to see people. To see beyond the external to something much deeper. And she saw something in my mom, through something most of us lament over, that revealed who she was inside.

This reminded me of how our lives should be as children of God. People are supposed to be able to look at us, at our lives, and see Him inside of us.

Often times, it is our scars, our weaknesses, our circumstances, the things we may be lamenting over as a woman laments over the wrinkles invading her once youthful face, through which others are able to see the most beautiful picture of God. It isn’t our fancy clothes or salon styled hair or radiant skin through which others see our Heavenly Father. It is through the fruit of the Spirit permeating our lives regardless of those things by which they get a glimpse of Him.

Do others, when they look at me, see the mercy, grace, goodness, faithfulness, strength, and holiness of God? Do my wrinkles, scars, and shortcomings reflect His perfect love?

We aren’t going to be perfect, but I think that’s the point. We are all in need of a Savior. We all need someone to step in and fix the broken messes of our lives. But are our wrinkles going in the right direction? Are all the things that our Messiah came to redeem pointing others to our Redeemer?

Harvest:

Heavenly Father, thank You for our wrinkles. For all the imperfections in our lives that point to Your perfect love, Your perfect provision, Your perfect mercy, Your perfect strength, and Your perfect ability to redeem our lives from sin. May I continue to be transformed day by day, from one degree of glory to another, into the image of Your Son, that I would be – scars and all – a beautiful reflection of You to the world. Amen.

Rockin’ Eggs

Seed:

2 Peter 1:16-2:3
2 Timothy 3:14-17
Jeremiah 29:13

Plant:

“Who be’s there gets a rockin’ egg!”

Emberlee declared this gleefully last night as she raced to the bathroom certain to be the first one to brush her teeth before bed. It was her wonderfully innocent mistranslation of “last one there is a rotten egg.”

This is now my new favorite phrase. I’m probably going to be saying it all the time. I mean, who doesn’t want a rockin’ egg? Just sitting here thinking about it still makes me giggle like it did when I first heard her say it last night. Kids really do say the darndest things.

I have a whole list compiled of all the weird and wacky words and phrases my kids have said over the years. Things like Fruhyah (Russell), open eel (oat meal), botchaleelin sauce (Polynesian sauce), and coykin doyle (coconut oil). How funny it is sometimes how their little brains filter the things they hear.

This kind of reminds me of how we can be with God. Sometimes our brains have a funny way of filtering the things we read in His Word. We allow doctrinal biases, personal opinions, and even our own life experiences to shape our understanding of what He says. No matter how sincere we are in our convictions, however, sometimes we get it wrong.

So how do we know what we think or believe is right? How do we know if our understanding is the correct understanding? When we cease to lean upon our own understanding and in all our ways acknowledge Him.

It’s important for us to get to know God so we can truly begin to understand Him. Before we start interjecting our thoughts about scripture, or the thoughts of any other faliable human being, we need to gain a firm footing in the character of the One who speaks to us through His written Word. Scripture is, after all, breathed our by God Himself.

Just as Emberlee had no reference point for a rotten egg and therefore filled in the blanks with something with which her brain was familiar, (and frankly sounded a lot more fun lol) there are many phrases and idioms within the Bible which aren’t familiar to us. It would be a good idea, then, for us to learn what some of those are. To study the context and culture, and even some of the original language in which scripture was written, to help us fix our brain filters when it comes to God’s Word. .

It’s important for us to learn, to study to show ourselves approved, to be workers who have no need to be ashamed because we are rightly handling the Word of God. Not making the Bible mean what we want it to, but truly seeking out the intention of the One who wrote it.

There are so many treasures hidden there for us to find. Things that have been hidden and distorted and lost throughout centuries of man’s apathetic curiosity.

Not that all of us have been flagging in our desire for God, but many of us settle for what others say about Him rather than pressing on to find Him ourselves.

Harvest:

May we all be gifted with a hunger that is both satisfied and intensified only by the presence of the LORD. And may we not be content to simply feed that hunger with meager morsels, but be compelled to fill that hunger daily with a ravenous pursuit of Him.