Advent- He came to heal

Isaiah 35:5-6

“Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing.”

TEXT

"Jesus said that His healing went straight to the heart of Messiah’s mission. They are a taste of God’s Kingdom coming. Jesus never did His mighty works as a gimmick to gather a crowd, but rather as a demonstration of the Kingdom of God. It is the heart of God to comfort and restore His creation.

Thus we see Jesus using kingly powers to command the dead to rise (Mark 5:41-42; Luke 7:14-15; John 11:43-44), the lame to leap (John 5:8-9; Mark 2:11), and deaf ears to open (Mark 7:31-35). No one Jesus touched was ever left the same as He brought God’s new creation to the world. But the crowds wanted a Messiah who would overthrow Rome, and cast down the political powers. So Jesus was despised and rejected by the people, and nailed to a cross." T. Smith

http://www.waterfromrock.org/2012/12/20/thursday-december-20-advent-devotional-2012/

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"No one Jesus touched was ever left the same

 as He brought God’s new creation to the world."

As the Advent season moves toward the full expression of God's love on Christmas Day, so our lives move toward a fuller expression of God's love in our lives.  "No one Jesus touched"....no one - not the ones He touched physically, not the believers through the ages, not His present church... "was ever left the same".   That's me and you and ones we love and the ones we struggle with - once a human has encountered the touch of Jesus, they are not left the same. 

I know I've changed since that winter day in 1972. It was a Young Life camp in the mountains of Colorado and Jesus touched me, He called  my name and I responded .  Did I immediately become tender and kind and aware of my family's needs?  Did I cease to slam my bedroom door? (big deal- I was in the far corner of the basement)  Did I keep myself pure and unsullied (isn't that  great old-fashioned word-http://www.thefreedictionary.com/unsullied)  Yeah, look it up- it isn't describing the next few years of my life. 

But I was not left untouched by the Savior of my soul, the Redeemer of my spirit, the Lover of ME.  He continued to touch and teach and chastise and led me through the joys and pains of relationships, marriage, children, loneliness, rejection, woundings, widowhood.  Is this His idea of restoration?  There were plenty of days I wanted to cry, "Just leave me alone!" 

But He didn't- He came to heal. Me. 

 "It is the heart of God to comfort and restore His creation"

Comfort - [from Old French confort, from Late Latin confortāre to strengthen very much, from Latin con- (intensive) + fortis strong]

His heart for me brought His strength into my little teenage girl life and started peeling away the layers of my anger, willfulness, insecurity, fears - and replacing with His character, his love, his kindess, his patience. Slowly, microscopically. With no visible changes for years sometimes. 

Restore -

 [from Old French, from Latin rēstaurāre to rebuild, from re- + -staurāre, as in instaurāre to renew]

He brought His plan, His blueprint into my world and has plans to rebuild it.  And He uses the rubble that I had buried, that I continued to make, that I will keep making - hopefully, in smaller amounts.  He didn't come once and leave if I didn't get it right the first time. And He didn't offer to just give me the blueprint so I could see the big picture and "do it myself", as much as I once thought that was a good idea. 

His heart is to restore His creation; I am His creation, He's sticking around to restore me.  Every time I identify a piece of rubble, brokenness, wound, hurt, expectation, fear and bring it to Him- He is here. It is His joy to rebuild, redeeming the largest and smallest pieces of my middle age life. 

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He came to heal and comfort and restore His CREATION. 

 That's me.

That's you.

We're His creation.

 

What do you need this Advent from the baby in the manger? The King of Kings and Lord of Lords who came low and humble, meek and mild.    The Prince of Peace who came to comfort, who  gives His strength to our lives. The Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, who came to restore His entire creation- to create a new earth and to create a new heart in the people who love Him. 

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In the midst of the heartaches of life, comfort feels far away.  We long for Jesus with skin on but we shrink from the hug from a friend or a husband. All we can feel is the layers being gently tugged away and we cling to the old patterns, the familiar reactions to words and we think it's safer to do our own thing.  

We want comfort, not strength to change. Can we trust HIm?

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Sometimes it doesn't look at all like there is any restoration work going on on the earth- the environment is a mess, the weather is wild and dangerous, the earth is shaking and slamming the door like a hostile teenage girl. And the people are capable of greater evil than ever before.  God's restoration is slow, an invisible process but just like that surly teen age girl who grew up and slowly changed, His creation will come into full restoration.  He has promised. 

Let's anticipate this Advent season and let Him do what He came to do- 

 comfort, restore, Heal. 

“Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. 

Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing.”