For a dry and parched land, rain is life itself.
For a dry and parched soul, the love of our Father is like the rain, refreshing and renewing, breathing life into places that have become stagnant and weary.
What joy to feel the soul slowly open up to the first few drops of this life, rain on a parched soul, increasing until it is drenched in this torrent of living water, and then finally is inundated beneath the swirling, endless ocean waters of beautiful, living love.
The healing has begun.
But I think this all begins with a state of brokenness.
A weary and broken traveller, bleeding and wasted from a journey alone drags him(her)self up a final hill and falls prostrate before a crude wooden cross, splintered and stained red from the blood paid for this journeyer. In brokenness, the journeyer is left with nothing but to turn weary eyes upwards where innocence and holiness collided with the world's depravity and death seemed to assume the victory. But within the shed blood dripping down the rugged cross, life flowed like living water for dying, thirsty souls. Love won the victory.
In a holy King's humbling sacrifice, dying and broken wanderers were raised to life.
The healing begins in the blood and the brokenness and continues in the purifying waters of love and redemption.
Washed in the cleansing rivers of His love, I think we are meant to return to the cross, daily, in every moment, our gaze should be fixed on the cross.
In love, He humbled Himself to raise us up.
In love, we should take the attitude of Christ, humbling ourselves so that He may be lifted up and glorified and so that others may be raised up.
I feel like we're in a constant journey back to the foot of the cross, living in remembrance of His sacrifice and the beauty of redemption.
Lately, a lot has been on my heart. All around me, the Lord continues to emphasize this recurring theme. As I look upon the cross, I wonder how such a crude and horrific form of execution could be transformed simply because He used it in His great plan for rescue and redemption. He continues to bring me back to the cross, and I keep finding myself drawn back to its mystery and beauty. And I find myself both refreshed and humbled in its shadow.
