Something To Say
You know that feeling when you think something is going to be the worst thing of all time and it actually winds up being pretty great? Well, a few weeks ago we had to take Anna to the dentist to get a tooth pulled. One of her two front permanent teeth was coming in too far back and wasn’t putting any pressure on the two little baby teeth in front that needed to fall out, so they weren’t getting loose. We took her to the dentist so he could have a look and he encouraged her to keep working on making the two baby teeth loose for another month or so. If they didn’t come out, he very quietly told me he’d have to pull them. Every day we told Anna to work on those teeth, but no real change came. Finally I told Anna the news I knew she wouldn’t want to hear... if she didn’t get them out, the dentist would have to pull them. Anna’s eyes instantaneously filled with tears and she ran into the bathroom crying. A few minutes later she emerged having yanked one of the two offending teeth out of her head with so much force, she actually broke it.
Thing was, that main front baby tooth wouldn’t budge, and we had to have it pulled. Anna was devastated and freaked out, but in the end, it was awesome! The dentist was amazing and gentle and Anna was glad to be free of those teeth. In the same vein, last week I was reading the book of Isaiah and came across something that had me spiralling down into a state of instantaneous freak out. In chapter 43, the Lord says, “Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth- everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”
Created for His glory?! Do you realize what this means? I t means I have been a total failure! Glory just means that you really and truly represent something... You fully express who or what that thing is. If God created me for His glory, I was supposed to be saying all kinds of stuff about Him! In fact, every single person ever made was supposed to express some individual and beautiful thing about who God is. We were all supposed to have something to say about the One who made us, but... no one really has! I mean, every now and then you see glimpses of something about Him: leadership in Lincoln, courage in Churchill, humor in Twain, tenderness and love in that person most dear to you, but for the most part, we haven’t said what we should have. As the Apostle Paul said, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Which means that as a race, we have failed and have nothing to say, right?
Actually, no... in spite of our failure, really because of our failure, we have something beautiful to say. We have a new and precious something to say that glorifies out God more than anything we could have said without having failed. So what is it? Well, in Luke 7 Jesus was having dinner at the home of a Pharisee named Simon when all of a sudden a woman walked in uninvited. She was a big-time sinner and everyone knew it. But she had found the forgiveness of Jesus and no one was going to stop her from showing it. She went up behind Jesus weeping uncontrollably so that her tears fell on his feet. She poured out her most treasured gift, a jar of expensive perfume, onto His feet and it mingled with her tears. She wiped his feet with her hair and though the Pharisees were scandalized, Jesus loved every second of it. Gratitude. Love. The glory of God. Even though we failed to be who we were made to be, Jesus came and offered Himself for our forgiveness. Now we have something to say: gratitude overflowing from a saved and thankful heart of love for Jesus is glorious indeed!
You know that feeling when you think something is going to be the worst thing of all time and it actually winds up being pretty great? Well, a few weeks ago we had to take Anna to the dentist to get a tooth pulled. One of her two front permanent teeth was coming in too far back and wasn’t putting any pressure on the two little baby teeth in front that needed to fall out, so they weren’t getting loose. We took her to the dentist so he could have a look and he encouraged her to keep working on making the two baby teeth loose for another month or so. If they didn’t come out, he very quietly told me he’d have to pull them. Every day we told Anna to work on those teeth, but no real change came. Finally I told Anna the news I knew she wouldn’t want to hear... if she didn’t get them out, the dentist would have to pull them. Anna’s eyes instantaneously filled with tears and she ran into the bathroom crying. A few minutes later she emerged having yanked one of the two offending teeth out of her head with so much force, she actually broke it.
Thing was, that main front baby tooth wouldn’t budge, and we had to have it pulled. Anna was devastated and freaked out, but in the end, it was awesome! The dentist was amazing and gentle and Anna was glad to be free of those teeth. In the same vein, last week I was reading the book of Isaiah and came across something that had me spiralling down into a state of instantaneous freak out. In chapter 43, the Lord says, “Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth- everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”
Created for His glory?! Do you realize what this means? I t means I have been a total failure! Glory just means that you really and truly represent something... You fully express who or what that thing is. If God created me for His glory, I was supposed to be saying all kinds of stuff about Him! In fact, every single person ever made was supposed to express some individual and beautiful thing about who God is. We were all supposed to have something to say about the One who made us, but... no one really has! I mean, every now and then you see glimpses of something about Him: leadership in Lincoln, courage in Churchill, humor in Twain, tenderness and love in that person most dear to you, but for the most part, we haven’t said what we should have. As the Apostle Paul said, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Which means that as a race, we have failed and have nothing to say, right?
Actually, no... in spite of our failure, really because of our failure, we have something beautiful to say. We have a new and precious something to say that glorifies out God more than anything we could have said without having failed. So what is it? Well, in Luke 7 Jesus was having dinner at the home of a Pharisee named Simon when all of a sudden a woman walked in uninvited. She was a big-time sinner and everyone knew it. But she had found the forgiveness of Jesus and no one was going to stop her from showing it. She went up behind Jesus weeping uncontrollably so that her tears fell on his feet. She poured out her most treasured gift, a jar of expensive perfume, onto His feet and it mingled with her tears. She wiped his feet with her hair and though the Pharisees were scandalized, Jesus loved every second of it. Gratitude. Love. The glory of God. Even though we failed to be who we were made to be, Jesus came and offered Himself for our forgiveness. Now we have something to say: gratitude overflowing from a saved and thankful heart of love for Jesus is glorious indeed!
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