The father was drawn to his broken, unkempt and emaciated rebel son – embraced him and showered him with passionate kisses. The despised Samaritan [ a picture of God] was drawn to the hacked and bloodied body of a complete stranger lying dying in a ditch. The Son of God was drawn to the leper – the outcast – the despised and the untouchable.
I spoke yesterday to a young Christian woman who had been verbally abused in the street of her city by a member of the church she had visited a few times, because she had decided not to attend any more. You can imagine how she felt. Some time ago a seriously ill friend [a Pastor] was rejected by a number of his Christian friends because he could not “walk in to the the healing” they believed was available to him. And so the list could go on.
I have believed for many years that God’s disposition is towards the poor – the outsider – the disenfranchised and powerless. But till yesterday I had never considered the Christian who, for various reasons now finds themselvs categorised as the rebel or the useless or the one whose time is now past or the backslider who has lost his faith in God’s power. And yet it was a powerless and broken Moses that God met in the burning bush – a suicidal Elijah whom God lifted from his place of burnout and spoke to in the – “still small voice” [a picture of gentle intimacy].
Most christian will subscribe to the truth that God’s “power is made perfect in weakness” [2 Corinthians 12:9] – but in reality I doubt many of us believe it – because it is not a nice place to be. Never the less the truth is, whatever our situation today – “The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” [Psalm 34:18].
No Comments