The Gift of a Rescue

Recently, I saw an image of a weary man, fallen on the sand, hand outstretched, as if to give his last effort to reach for help… and from that one image, I envisioned the whole of humanity, since time dawned on Earth, collectively aching and reaching out for a Savior.  

In the last few years, we have been through a lot. The world is tired.  One doesn’t have to look far to acknowledge our need for help… I would say it has likely been this way since the Garden of Eden.

For as quickly as the Creator created, His creations denied His love. It only took until Genesis chapter 3 for the trajectory to change dramatically. Instead of intimately living with God, following His will, and abundantly abiding in a perfect world, Adam and Eve’s fall was ours as well. 

Since then, God has repeatedly proven faithful in pursuing us with His love (see whole Bible).  And, seemingly, just as faithfully, humans of all time have remained steeped in selfishness, saturated in sin. All of us, to varying degrees, have “fallen short and sinned” (Romans 3:23).

We are so pathetic, really.

It moved me to think how human, how lowly, how needy we all are.

The worst of us all can be played out nightly on the news, and had Lester Holt’s Nightly News been around in the B.C. era, the same stories would have been reported. In analogy, we are crawling desperately, like that man in the sand, marred with the choices we make as we live according to the flesh. 

For all the crimes and misdeeds committed over and over on this spinning Earth, we should hardly be able to lift our chins to see our Rescuer. Sadly, many people won’t. Many missed Him and even walked this Earth with Him.

However…

Our God possesses a staggering love. 

Rescue was His plan all along.  And Jesus was the only way to see us out of our darkness. 

He entered and lifted our chins for us so that we can accept these truths:

We are darkness, He is light. (1 John 1:5)

We are lowly, He is exalted. (Psalm 46:10)

We are filthy, He is pure. (Hebrews 4:15)

We are bound, He is freedom. (2 Corinthians 3:17)

We are parched, He is living water.  (John 4:14)

As soon as Jesus bridged the canyon between man and God, darkness is now only an option. We don’t have to live steeped in selfishness, saturated in sin. His life sacrifice removed all the misdeeds from Eve’s first bite to Earth’s last sin.

God is so holy and so righteous but we are so fallen and foul. Only the cost of Jesus’ life could remedy the pain of centuries and the guilt of all. As if this was not wonderful enough, the even better news is that we don’t have to earn it!  It is free for the taking, if you only accept it.

And when you do, you are no longer just a weary wanderer of this Earth, but a new creation!

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

May you be reminded this Holy Week of God’s plan for your redemption.  

May you ponder the wealth of love God has for us all in the gift of a rescue that was so very necessary. 

May you feel hopeful.

Just like that first image of the man in the sand, there is one of another Man hanging on a cross. This Man, however, is giving His last effort to extend all the help we need. ❤️