Daughter

Proverbs 22:4.

The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life.

With his double-sized hands, he awaits for you to lay down your pride. Package it up and place it in the potter’s hands. Let him carry you home and cradle your soul. “Come rest with me in heaven, darling,” he says. “Come home.”

Jeremiah 16:16

“But now I will send for many fishermen,” declares the Lord, “and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and from the crevices of the rocks.

Yahweh could lift up the tip of a mountain to search for us underneath. He could peel up the rug of grass stretching over His Earth. He could swim down into the deepest depths, stand on His tippy toes and peek over the sun, carve out a valley to search for us there. But Jehovah does not have to. For, He never lost us in the first place.

Isaiah 53:5

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

I sit in a courtroom, defeated and broken and ready for hell to envelop me. “I’m guilty, just take me.”

I jump as a soft voice whispers into my ear, “No. Take me instead.” I turn and see a man with a crown of thorns crushed into his skull. A drop of his blood falls onto my shoulder. He stands up straight and moves to the front of the courtroom.

“Take me instead!” the man proclaims.

The judge looks at the man with tears in his eyes. The judge has a translucent quality about him. His eyes search mine and then look back at the man with the crown. He nods.

“No, I’m guilty! You’ve done nothing wrong!” My energy returns, but only to prove my own guilt.

The man smiles sadly at me and begins walking toward the guard at the edge of the courtroom. They cuff him and lead him away. “Why?!” I cry. Why would he do this for me?

“Because, daughter. I love you.”

1 John 3:2

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known.

The young girl smiles and looks up at her father. She offers her creation– a paper with colorful scribbles– to her Papa; beaming ear to ear. His eyes are smiling pools of warmth and kindness; craters of love. “It’s beautiful, beloved.” She reaches toward Him but falls. Tears well up in her wide, scared eyes. He scoops her up in His mighty hands and cradles her gently. She leans into her father’s broad chest.

Psalm 103:13

The LORD is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him.

She stands but falls when she takes a step. Her Father watches her with compassion but does not budge. With open arms, he waits for her to come. She takes two steps and falls. Three, falls. Two, falls. Five, falls.

After countless times of trying, she waddles toward her father. “Papa!” she cries– so close to him. She leans forward and falls into His loving embrace. With joy on her lips the child exclaims, “I did it!”

“You did it.” The Father holds her close. “And I am so, so proud of you.”

Proverbs 13:24

“Those who spare the rod hate their children, but those who love them are diligent to discipline them”

Jehovah Jireh sets boundaries, not rules. He traces a line on the sidewalk with chalk. He tells his children that the road is on the other side, do not run into it. Perhaps it is exhilarating, perhaps it feels good for a moment, but it will demolish you. Yet, we run towards sin in spite of God’s loving rebuke. “Don’t go over there, child,” His kind voice wraps around our spirit. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

May, 2023

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Prose rights reserved. Verses from the Holy Bible.