My friend is
very concerned about a family member, whose actions have resulted in the
breakup of a marriage and the lives of several school aged children being
turned upside down. I pray for this household when I remember, but recently
something occurred to bring the whole matter much closer to my heart.
I was
visiting my friend’s new baby, whose little body was sweetly wrapped in handmade
clothing – gifts, I learned, from the family member who went astray. Before giving
way to temptation and sin, this person had lovingly crafted the items for a
not-yet-born niece or nephew.
Somehow,
seeing these tiny wearables made the situation more real for me. Before, it had
been someone else’s problem, someone else’s “family secret,” about which I was
concerned from a polite distance. But here lay a child, wearing evidence of the
love in this troubled person’s heart for an unknown infant, before darker
impulses took over.
It brought
me to my knees.
It also
brought to mind the following verse, which more or less includes every misdeed of
which mankind is capable. Some are explicitly stated; others, included by
extension, for what offense isn’t motivated by desire and envy when you get
right down to it?
“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not
inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor
idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals. nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous,
nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were
washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.” ~ 1 Corinthians 6:9-11
I intend to stamp
the image of those grace-filled garments onto my brain, as a reminder to pray
for both wearer and bearer.
The
following song by the Newsboys is my prayer for this misguided soul:
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