All Things
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28
It’s Mother’s Day, in case you forgot! Actually I tried to forget this day for years, make that decades. I grew up in a church that celebrated Mother’s Day by everyone wearing a rose to honor their mother. If your mother was living, you’d wear a red rose, and if she had died, you wore a white rose. From age 11 on I was marked as a white rose-wearer, and I hated that. The last thing I wanted to be reminded of was the day mom was ripped from my young life in a car wreck, so I never wore a white rose and I stopped going to the church that expected me to.
After becoming a follower of Jesus 7 years after mom’s death, I discovered the verse with which I began this morning gospel-devo. I used it like a band-aid on a cancer, simply wanting to claim a magical and instant cure for the wound that ravaged my heart. It worked for a while, but like all forms of denial, my spiritual-spin-meistering thankfully collapsed under the weight of reality. Jesus is a healer, not an illusionist.
However on Mother’s Day 2009 I finally ruminate on Romans 8:28 with joy, for I now experience the truth contained here as a journey, not as a moment, as a womb in which new life is being born, not as a panacea for pretenders. And I can look all of you in the email-eye and tell you that “all things” means all things. Whatever your wound, loss, betrayal, heartache, painful victimization or destructive agent-hood, God who freely and fully gave his Son for our justification, will give/does give everything necessary for our healing, freedom and transformation. However, he’s working for eternity, not next week. Stay present in the pain and be patient with grace. The very wounds you are carrying can become the very portal through which you will love as Jesus loves you. Don’t despise white roses.