His Way

"In His heart, He desires us to want Him more than all the junk."

RED AND YELLOW divided the canvas. Red stayed left, and Yellow stayed right. All was well, as long as the division remained. Then late one night, Orange was born, and a cry went up from the colors. How did this happen? Red and Yellow, forced to accommodate Orange, couldn’t keep to their sides anymore. Plus, now some in Red desired Blue. Unheard of. And some in Yellow made Green. Green and Purple blended to make black. Orange and Green with a dash of Red, to make Brown.

It was all wrong, purists said. Can’t we all go back to the Color Palette?

Hearing their cries, the Big Brush In The Sky painted it all White and sent Gold. All was new again, except where a few tiny spots of Brown refused to comply.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23)

God left His handprint, but we’ve taken up fingerpainting. Where the ridges of His prints remained, we’ve mixed in our own colors that we’ve invented. We’re displeased with His exactness, more content now to be abstract, unclear. And the brown keeps appearing in what should be beautiful.

This analogy is not to skin color. Please, don’t think it. I have pledged to see the wonder of all cultures, all skin tones. We are all made in God’s image, after His likeness. He scattered mankind at Babel to make something gorgeous, not to destroy us. Death is not His work. Instead death is what makes a human body defective. Men have always asked why some are born with physical trauma while others are not. A verse in the Remedy Translation painted this for me. A man born blind was brought up before Jesus, and His disciples asked Him, “Teacher, who broke God’s law: this man or his parents, that God would punish him with blindness (John 9:2)?"

“Jesus answered them, ‘This man’s blindness was not due to some act that either he or his parents committed, but because the world is infected with selfishness, and defects have entered the human body. God permitted this to occur so that his work of healing and restoration can be clearly distinguished from Satan’s methods that destroy.’” (John 9:3 Remedy)

Set the word “permitted” aside for a moment, it being what we continually trip over, and reread Jesus’ answer. The world is infected with defects that have entered the human body. The brown paint is here. Adam sinned, and sin brought spiritual and physical death. But God does the work of healing and restoration. This is something about the Father which we must grasp. He did not cause sin. He did not bring death. He is LIFE, everlasting, abundant, eternal LIFE. So outside of Him, where He is not, there is only death and things involved with death.

He is an instant fix for all of it, but not in the way we have decided. Somehow, we just want Him to keep things perfect all the time, and that is His plan for the remaking of the earth. But we want it today, regardless of who and what is on this earth, and in His heart, He desires us to want Him more than all the junk. He can and will heal an impatient man, but He will heal a patient one always. He has healed someone filled with hate. Paul is our example. But what He wants is us to be filled with His love. He wants us to change our heart, to alter our thinking, and become totally His, though we kick against the thorns around us every single day.

He doesn’t want anyone to perish, so He sent Jesus. And Jesus wanted us to live, so He willingly laid down His life. No man took it from Him, to the extent they could not even break His legs to assure He was dead. The fact He was dead already prevented it. He didn’t die from His wounds. He died when He released His spirit into the Father’s hands (Luke 23:46). This makes all His physical and mental suffering entirely His choice. And His victory, the Father’s display of joy. For when physically dead, He was spiritually alive and crowned King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But now, the way into God’s perfection is opened. Healing is ours; health is ours. We never have to lack and do without, be anguished, fearful, and worried. The Father knows what we have need of, and when we ask and seek, we will find (Matthew 6:32;Matthew 7:7). He will provide.

Rather than make the brown be white when it refused and would not change, instead, He made it possible. He became the Way. He permitted us to choose, knowing who will choose and who won’t and how each one of us will find Him or deny Him. Man forces other men to comply. “Obey my rules or else.” God does not. At the same time, neither does He give up on us. Some with the hardest hearts are now beautiful colors on His canvas. We are an unfinished work in a design He drew before time.

A man on Instagram carved a wooden shield with figurines and intricacies. It was amazing to see his skill. Then he showed the design he’d drawn, and I was just as blow away. He could draw as well as he could carve. Another draws everything using squiggly lines, which up close, look like nothing, but when you reverse, what an amazing eye he has and deftness of hand. Then we can stare at a child and marvel that he or she will become a parent, a grandparent, one day. That they will walk and talk and form opinions and make choices. We celebrate their potential but condemn God for what He’s done. Is it that we should all be perfect or that we should lean on Him and know strength?

Don’t excuse the mishaps and give into the devil’s scheme or to the hand of darkness brought about by sin. Don’t blame God for what defects have entered the body and the mind. But turn to Him for healing and for the size of His patience, which would see Adam and Eve and the death of Abel at his brother’s hand, yet not send Jesus for thousands of years. Not out of laziness but in perfection and planning because it was the best way, it is His way, and no other would ever accomplish it.

“But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.” (Psalms 86:15)

“Love is patient, love is kind.” (1 Corinthians 13:4 BSB)

Image by NVD from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com