Rain lashes out sideways. I stroll up in my Rendezvous to the sidewalk near the bus station. My son’s attending University of Washington. I drop him here, to ride the rest of the way to Seattle.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see her. A young girl, maybe eighteen or nineteen, t-shirt, sleeveless, shivering in the freezing temperatures.
Her sight in itself does not grip me, as the homeless make this refuge their shelter, on cold, bitter days like today.
I had been watching them intently; the ones fumbling for coats, lugging around backpacks, the lady whose eyes stare off as she wanders aimlessly from the glass sheltering and safety.
But this girl seemed different….
Even the homeless had coats. Even the destitute seemed to wander, like lily pads floating in a seas of disillusionment.
But this girl? She was going somewhere.
I look closer, still waiting in my warm, leather-seated vehicle.
She had a blanket, a small, infant like shape under what appeared to be like a blue receiving blanket…similar to the one I once carried my own son home from the hospital in.
Her feet raced faster. Her arms wrapped around that blanket. Her eyes determined.
She passed by the bus station. I thought she’d go in. But she keeps speed walking past; cold, freezing, drenched from the rain like a frightened cat, racing determined for someplace only she perceived.
This morning, I open scripture….
My mind races to the two little kids we had cared for recently and have been trying to help.
Yesterday, we get reports that their mom has been beaten again. They say she has been beaten now for years.
I cuddle tight in my comfy couch, stare at the lights on the tree, while the years with my family are represented by the ornaments dangling.
And I wonder how I even got here….
Why do I sit comfortable, while others still struggle with addiction, tiny infants, hurried through the rain at Christmas time? Why have others not been freed from the torment and burdens that seem far too heavy to bare.
And He reminds me…
“A man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ” (Gal 2:16) And I bow my head, thinking about how, if not for grace, it could have been me…beaten, running, struggling like those seemingly all around me…
I read further…
“And I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith…” (Gal 2:20)
And He reminds me of how He saved me. How He radically delivered and changed my life forever. Not by works, my own will, or by any great wisdom or education I might have carried…
But by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, mercy found me and set me free.
And I wonder if shame can be a greater whip, shackles tighter than any sin we might commit? And if we saw His goodness, would we trust Him, let go, and walk towards freedom?
Reinhardt Bonnke told a story once about an elephant in a circus. The elephant was large, capable, thousands of times stronger than a human…
But yet, it was held to the circus tent, by one thin, simply, tiny rope.
Why did it stay there? Why did it not know, it had the power to leave, break free, walk simply forward towards freedom and it’s rope would be eliminated?
The circus instructor told Bonnke…
“When the elephant is little, we shackle it, bind it, teach it that the chains are keeping it, and nothing it can do will help him get away.
So, when he grows older, and feels even the smallest chain around it’s one leg…it has been conditioned to still believe it is powerless and enslaved.”
And I wonder…
How many of us, have a rope? A small threat around one area of our life where we think, are intimidated, or believe somehow that our bondage is greater than His power in us that free’s us?
Maybe your under oppression from an abusive person, in a situation where there has been lies, addiction, pain, and rain pouring down on nearly every area of your life…
Well today, I pray these words will wrap themselves around you, so together, we can shout out to the heavens, “It is time to break free”….
And maybe freedom isn’t only found in big leap, but the simple small steps of confidence knowing…He is bigger than what’s keeping you back.
He paid the price for our freedom, and will help when we cry out to Him.
It is by faith, Galatians teaches…
Faith in a big God, a God who has equipped and empowers us with everything we need to weather the storm, walk out of the hardships and afflictions, set our feet in confidence that He came that we might know freedom.
We can have faith in this God of ours…
Because unlike man, He will not harm or exploit us. He is loving, patient, came like an infant to us; weak, un-intimidating, gentle, humble, gracious…ready to pay the price for our thread.
I turn around and try to find the girl, racing with an infant in the rain…
I wonder if she is in danger. She passes the bus station and power walks in the direction of the homeless shelter.
Was she protecting the infant? Had she too been beaten? W
here was the babies warm blanket and the coat of this child-mother I was seeing?
I turn my care around to leave, then look for her gain…
But suddenly she is gone. Vanished.
I slowly drive off, disheartened and now disbelieving that there is not way to help her.
I turn on the radio and God reminds me, of another infant son.
And all of the sudden, the packages, presents, shopping, commercialism disintegrate in light of a Savior who came weak, innocent, perfect…to another young mother, so very long ago.
So, I am choosing to stop wrestling, this Christmas. I am choosing to open my eyes, and let go in a world too broken that only He can only fix it…
Stop separating the broken and the church going. The well-dressed, the desolate…
“All sinners, saved by (and in need of) grace”…isn’t that what He teaches?
I bow my knee. The mom with the children beaten, the girl with the baby, and me….all weak, all broken, all desperately needing a Savior…
And, isn’t it in the bowing low, where we can stand tall, like the elephant, and then step forward through our chains…
So the world will know His hope?
