Lent #11: nothing left behind

Breathe John 5.

John 5:25 I tell you the truth: a new day is imminent—in fact, it has arrived—when the voice of the Son of God will penetrate death’s domain and everyone who hears will live. 26-27 You see, the Father radiates with life, and He also animates the Son of God with the same life-giving beauty and power to exercise judgment over all of creation. Indeed, the Son of God is also the Son of Man. 28 If this sounds amazing to you, what is even more amazing is that when the time comes, those buried long ago will hear His voice through all the rocks, sod, and soil 29 and step out of decay into resurrection.

A friend of mine said recently:  crucifixion is always tied to resurrection.  I have been pondering that thought over the last few weeks, wondering if it is true. Are things in us ever put to death without new life coming from them? Are some things just left to decay and rot?  Is everything redeemed?

I had a vision some years ago of myself walking along a road.  When I looked down at myself I saw that there were holes all through me. And when I looked back on the road from where I had come, I saw parts of myself left along the side of the way. I clearly sensed God's presence there on the road with me saying, "sarah, I am not leaving parts of you behind.  My work is to restore you wholly. Each and every piece. There is nothing that does not have worth to me. No part of your story that my touch does not make holy.  I want you to be whole as much as I want you to be holy."

This vision changed the way that I prayed.  No longer do I pray for God to cut things out of us or rid of us sin, but instead to touch it with the burning coal that sears each part of us and makes it holy. There is nothing in my life and in my being that cannot be restored fully.  Nothing that I have to leave on the side of the road.

There are many parts of us that are in decay under layers of sod and dirt.  When we hear and respond to the Voice, all of who we are is resurrected--or is in the process of being resurrected.

Today: there are few parts of me that need to die gentle, natural deaths. But I won't leave pieces of me along the road to decay. God is in the work of the resurrecting each and every bit of me (and of you). I will be more whole than before, not less.