3 years ago, sitting in church, I listened to the masses sing, “He’s a good, good father” and I considered the most profound anti church thought. I said, “NO HE ISN’T.” Good fathers don’t let their daughters endure the pain I am in. They save us.
TAKE HEART, Daughter.
The courts have put off most of our court dates due to the coronavirus. But this virus does not stop the anguish you are enduring. Your pain does not get put on hold.
TAKE HEART, Daughter.
4 years ago, during one of my trips to Israel, I had the honor to study under a brilliant teacher, Kristi McLelland. Kristi opened my eyes to a new view of how Jesus truly sees not only me, but also women. I am going to do my best to honor one of her teachings.
There is a big, blank spot in the Bible between the Old and the New Testament. For 400 years no prophets wrote about the Lord. Some of the last words in the Old Testament, Malachi 4:2 states:
But to you who fear My name The Sun of Righteousness shall arise With healing in His wings; And you shall go out And grow fat like stall-fed calves. (NKJV)
Visualize a Rabbi (Jewish Teacher) in a temple, holding his prayer shawl, or TELLIT. The shawl rests on his shoulders and his hands grasp the bottom corners. He spreads his arms out wide as if embrace the children or provide a “wing span” over the children under his protection. People in Jesus’ day would have known the Old Testament with the familiarity we know all the symptoms of Covid-19. They would have known Malachi 4:2. And they would have known to looking for a “healer” “with healing in His wings” in the Messiah who they believed was coming.
Matthew 9:22 focuses on a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years. In Jesus’ time, she was seen as untouchable, literally, because if she touched someone, they would be perceived as carrying her “dirt”. This would have been especially troublesome for a rabbi, or Jewish teacher, because he would be unclean and unable to enter the temple for worship until he cleansed himself. Her shame and self-loathing is inconceivable to me. I can’t begin to imagine how depressed and discouraged she must have felt in the isolation she had to endure. And I suspect she spent a lot of time going over the words of the Old Testament looking for something to give her hope.
Desperately she sought after this man who was rumored to be a healer and wore “wings”. Clawing her way through a throng of men and women who surely knew she was dirtying them as she bumped them, she focused on the MAN with “healing in His wings.” On her knees, through the dirt, she brushed a part of his wing and was healed. Healed? Did she believe it? Did she need to check to see if she stopped bleeding? And then He called her. Luke and Mark describe her as “trembling” when she responded to His call. I hear the panic in her heartbeat, the frozen breath in her throat, and fear. Indescribable fear of what will come next? “Is He going to take back my miracle? Is He going to chastise me for touching him? Have I made him dirty too?” She knew she was undesirable but then she heard: “TAKE HEART, Daughter,… Your faith has healed you.”
And she got it. He loved her. He didn’t promise to make her life easy or solve any of her problems. He just gave her hope. One small step. That day.
Jesus sees you. I don’t have the answers to the “whys” but I know He sees us, today. I know many of you are in desperate situations and my heartaches for each of you. Take heart, today. You are His daughters.
For more information on Kristi’s teachings, go to: www.newlensbiblicalstudies.com
