The One who breaks us
"For He wounds, but he binds up; he shatters, but his hands heal." Job 5:18
Meditating on pain in the lives of those I love. God Himself can be the agent afflicting the pain on the life of those I love. He takes responsibility for it and says it comes from Him. How do I respond to this revelation of God?
I need to sit with this reality but not stop there. He is also the agent of healing. He also sits with those who are in deep pain. He doesn't rush their healing. He doesn't grow impatient with them as they seek to navigate life during the process of restoration. He puts the broken back together again and He does it in a way the is personally detailed. He binds up wounds to make the wounded look more like Jesus at the end of the process than they were at the beginning.
Are we patient with the hurting? Are we compassionate? "Compassion" and "sympathy" both come from words that mean to suffer with. Do we step into the pain of others (even strangers) and open ourselves up to experiencing their pain? Do we call out the shared brokenness that is ours as image bearers of God in a broken world? Or do we guard ourselves fiercely, barricade ourselves from their brokenness, seeking the bury our own brokenness, to ignore it and hope no one sees it, and that it will go away? Do we see the hand of the Maker in our brokenness and that of others? Do we see the Potter at work with the clay?
Meditating on pain in the lives of those I love. God Himself can be the agent afflicting the pain on the life of those I love. He takes responsibility for it and says it comes from Him. How do I respond to this revelation of God?
I need to sit with this reality but not stop there. He is also the agent of healing. He also sits with those who are in deep pain. He doesn't rush their healing. He doesn't grow impatient with them as they seek to navigate life during the process of restoration. He puts the broken back together again and He does it in a way the is personally detailed. He binds up wounds to make the wounded look more like Jesus at the end of the process than they were at the beginning.
Are we patient with the hurting? Are we compassionate? "Compassion" and "sympathy" both come from words that mean to suffer with. Do we step into the pain of others (even strangers) and open ourselves up to experiencing their pain? Do we call out the shared brokenness that is ours as image bearers of God in a broken world? Or do we guard ourselves fiercely, barricade ourselves from their brokenness, seeking the bury our own brokenness, to ignore it and hope no one sees it, and that it will go away? Do we see the hand of the Maker in our brokenness and that of others? Do we see the Potter at work with the clay?
"But we hold this treasure [the knowledge/revelation of the gospel] in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us." 2 Cor. 4:7 "And we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord [the One who breaks us], are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. And this is from the Lord who is the Spirit." 2 Cor. 3:18
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