The Holy One calls to me this morning. Each day represents a fresh start. As a temporal widow, that truth is so important to my emotional well being. The past is gone, the regrets of yesterday must be left behind, and the lessons learned must be carried forward.
If we choose to live in the past we will be useless in today.
Having said that, deep healing sometimes requires a fresh look at an old wound. The Holy Spirit pulls back the bandage for some fresh air on an old heart injury.
Mine is a big family. Marriage became a melting pot of his, hers, ours and theirs. God's purposes arranged for that beautiful tapestry of lives interwoven. The trial of life and the hand of God always make for an interesting collision especially in the dynamics of relationships.
God's ultimate purpose is to bring us into the image of His Son. The image He is after is not the physical but rather the relational image of a father to His child. We are taught and have seen graphic examples of the physical torture Jesus suffered and the sacrifice He made for us.
The suffering Son was marred beyond human recognition:
"Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God. smitten by Him and afflicted. But He was pierced for OUR transgressions. He was crushed for OUR iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace (with God) was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed." (Isaiah 53:4-5)
I often wondered why Jesus had to go through all the maiming of His physical body. I ponder the questions:
"Why did He submit to the torture inflicted by Roman soldiers and the Cross of crucifixion? Was there not a less brutal way to save our souls?"
But then, the Lord delivers a mental picture of one of our wounded warriors lying on a hospital bed. Their physical pain and emotional trauma are off the charts of any other human experience. Jesus, the Savior of mankind, looked down through the ages to this day and that wounded warrior. He chose to go through all that physical torture to be able to whisper in that ear, "I know how you feel!".
The love of humanity's Savior caused Him to surrender to all the forms of suffering that His Beloved might go through, and there is nothing we can take to Him that He does not understand from His human experience in a flesh and blood body.
Today He is addressing an emotional injury that has been inflicted on all generations through weak human vessels.
The love of a father is the earliest and most important relationship we need in order to truly grasp the picture and face of God, the Father. That sacred relationship between the father and child is the target of such evil in these end times.
Outside influences, personal rejection, and spiritual forces of evil in the Heavenly realms have targeted fathers and wreaked havoc against the role ordained to represent the Father Heart of God to their children. I see how relational alienation and estrangement in our society makes it very difficult to find our way back to our Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ the Son.
The Holy One welcomes me into His presence to share a truth for healing that is like the balm of Gilead to my heart.
Strained relationships seem more extreme in an Italian family. Passions seem to ratchet up and perceived betrayal is often handled through the ultimate severing of relationship and disownment of the offender. My temporal husband passed over into eternity with the stigma of being disowned by his parents and most of his family of origin.
That emotional pain was always just under the surface of his ideas about family. The sword of Christ is a God-ordained reality (Jesus said it would divide closest family members) but that does not lessen the sorrow associated with its purpose.
The Holy Spirit directs my intercession today to that deep family wound with a stunning truth:
"Jesus death on the cross nullified every curse. He made all things new and gives everyone the hope of a fresh start. Everything is washed and purified by His shed Blood".
I believe that to be true, but He continues, "even the curse of the father disowning the son".
I am utterly speechless with that revelation and its profound implication. Jesus suffered the emotional disownment that all of us fear and many have suffered in the human arena: Father rejection.
On the Cross and for the first time in eternity, the Son was emotionally and relationally estranged from the Father.
For the first time in eternity, the Father was emotionally and relationally estranged from the Son.
The picture of the Trinity broken is shocking to my mind and yet I realize the day when Jesus said, "My God, why have you forsaken Me?" (Matt 27:46) was ordained before mankind ever sinned and the effects of betrayal were ever suffered.
I never really thought too far past the physical torture and human betrayal inflicted on my Lord to process the ultimate sense of abandonment and Father rejection He went through that day. Human betrayal is one thing but Father God estrangement is complete devastation.
I feel the sorrow and I feel the joy. My heart is broken and healed all at the same time. "How great is the love the Father has lavished upon us that we should be called Children of God" (1 John 3:1).
Jesus suffered the wrath of His Father, taking on our sin to remedy the separation and heal the Holy disownment all humanity would otherwise be forced to endure. The curse has been broken as has the generational chain through which it was passed. Now I can and must take claim to the healing provided so that my Savior did not suffer His emotional (and physical) brokenness in vain.
Peace floods my heart. Just as the Holy Trinity was restored in love, we can trust that our families can be restored too. I know that my Prayers and petitions have a strong basis in the principles and precedents established by my Heavenly Father.
Today is a new day and a fresh start. Even as we have felt the pain of human rejection, we can know the unconditional love of the Father. The Blood of Jesus atoned for everything in me that would cause my Father in Holiness to have to reject me. Perfect Justice has been satisfied and the penalty for sin has been paid in full.
I understand even better today, that by His wounds we are healed, even and especially those emotional ones.
The Holy Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
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