Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.” (John 11:25)
Category Archives: Life of Jesus
You won!
Back in 1958, I was in the eighth-grade, struggling to get through some very awkward years. Since I wasn’t in the popular group, I saw my fellow students as superior and myself as inferior. The girls had shapely figures, swingy hair, trendy clothes, and better grades. I was pudgy, wore serviceable clothes, was a C-student, and had bushy eyebrows. I lived for weekends, vacations, and any other time I could avoid being in school.
But then something wonderful happened.
I knew I had below-average artistic skills but had signed up for a ceramics class…. because that’s what the cool kids did. Our teacher asked each of us what we wanted to make. In a nod to my sweet tooth, I settled on a cookie jar. And what better design than a girl’s head with a big, cookie-eating mouth?
Day after day I worked on my creation, doing my very best. But the result was a badly-proportioned head that could have been the centerpiece of a horror movie.
I was sure my teacher had to stifle a laugh every time he looked at it, but one day, after our projects had come out of the kiln and were finally finished, he approached my table. “I like what you made, Margaret. And I’ve decided to enter it in a contest.”
I was stunned. And thrilled!
The following weekend my family of five traipsed into a Wieboldts department store nearby and found my cookie jar standing proudly behind glass alongside other entries. And I’d actually won something! Not a blue ribbon or any ribbon for that matter, but a Certificate of Merit. I was delighted, though, because that gold seal awarded me something I’d wanted far more than even a blue ribbon — approval!
The glow continued through Monday in ceramics class, when my teacher poured on the praise for my accomplishment. And oh, did that feel good.
Once in a while, as we walk through life doing our best, we take on an inferiority complex, absolutely sure we’re a disappointment to God. We see ourselves as spiritual failures and would give anything to feel the glow of his approval. The truth, though, is that once we commit to Jesus Christ, we’ve already won it – because we’ve come to him through his Son, of whom he highly approves. He even has a prize ready for us, despite the accomplishment being all Christ’s and not ours. It surpasses certificates, gold seals, even blue ribbons: an eternity with him, in the light of his permanent approval.
As for my future ceramic efforts, I peaked with the cookie jar.
The world will know that You sent me and have loved them [Jesus-followers] even as You have loved Me. (John 17:23)
Swept Away
Over the holiday weekend, our extended family celebrated with a picnic and explosives, much like the rest of the country. But I had a little celebration of my own, too: I bought a new broom.
My trusty old one had swept well for years, but by the 4th of July, I finally admitted it had passed its prime. So when I made a trip to the grocery store and saw my broom’s close cousin hanging on a rack, I took it home with me.
My new broom didn’t cost much, but each time I pull it out, I get a little thrill. Sweeping is more efficient now, and even a bit fun.
I thought back to my childhood and the brooms Mom used, made of straw. They were heavy, stiff, and often left broken bristles along the way.
Before that, it was brooms made of tree branches, and preceding that, thin sticks tied in bundles. Compared to those, my new broom is the Rolls Royce of the sweeping world.
At my house, a broom is most often used for brushing up wayward sand from beach trips or nudging acorns off the deck. But of course there are a hundred other uses for a good broom.
Beyond all of those, though, are the many ways God uses a broom for his supernatural sweeping, and my little red one could never do what his does.
For example, during the miraculous Red Sea extravaganza, he “swept the Egyptian army into the sea.” (Exodus 14:23) And though I can only sweep what can be seen, God can sweep away the invisible with the same effectiveness, things like evil. “I will sweep with the broom of destruction,” declares the Lord Almighty. (Isaiah 14:23) God’s “wrath has gone forth, a sweeping tempest.” (Jeremiah 30:23)
One thing is certain – he never sweeps without a desire to make things clean. In the Old Testament he said, “I will make a clean sweep of the house of Jeroboam,” and then he proceeded to do away with every family member who was bent on evil, leaving only the righteous. (1 Kings 14)
That may sound harsh, but the Lord’s ability to sweep away evil has a benefit to us these days. Now that Jesus has died to save us from sin, God does something wonderful with his broom — on a regular basis.
Any of us who choose to surrender to him can watch him sweep “away their offenses like a cloud and their sins like a morning mist…. ” (Isaiah 44:22)
And there’s no broom that can sweep any better than that!
“What woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin, does not…. sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?” (Luke 15:8)