Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love,
for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go,
for to you I lift up my soul.
Psalm 143:8 ESV
Our God who lit the sun on fire Who stirs the wrath of hurricanes Also made the joyful child Eager to see dawn’s flames For When our hearts feel cold and dead In joy our God prepared A day when stones roll back from tombs And for the road ahead And for the Road Ahead by Peter Caligiuri Copyright © 2023 all rights reserved.
After my grandfather came from Italy, he became a barber and all six of his children had to pitch in to help in the shop. That shop was where my dad learned his barbering. As a young man dad went off to the war and after coming home settled on opening a beauty salon. On Mondays, dad closed the store for cleaning and while I helped sweep the floors and clean the chairs, we had some of our best talks. Dad loved telling stories and one of his favorites was how many of the ladies washed their hair before coming in, even though they knew he would wash it again. They just couldn’t stand the idea of him seeing that their hair dirty! Now you might think that silly, but sometimes we do the same thing when we go to church. Think of church as Heaven’s beauty shop, where God has a message and fellowship prepared for us that can help us with our dirty hair and give us a loving style again. But instead, of coming to ask God for His help, we decide that we better get ourselves washed up at home, so maybe He won’t notice. Even crazier is that, unlike dad’s clientele, we do not even have to pay the bill. Instead, God has chosen to pay in advance at Calvary, for everything we have ever done. He is not angry when we come with our needs and problems, instead He is ready to wash away our sin and exchange it for grace and beauty and leaves us a new lifestyle. Then, He proudly shows anyone who wants to know that our hair as well as our soul is squeaky clean and ready for Heaven! The hymn “Just as I Am”, reminds us how Jesus calls us to come.
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39 ESV
Being a bit of a tool guy, I love watching commercials that start out with some crazy guy who takes his chainsaw and cuts his boat in half. In scene two, he glues the two halves of the boat back together and then in the final clip, we see him, waterskiing behind that boat while it is speeding effortlessly across the water! Maybe all of us, not just tool guys love these scenes because it is wonderful seeing broken things getting fixed! In our real lives however, there are mornings when we pull the pot out from the coffee maker and see grounds swirling around the bottom like the debris caught up in a tornado. We get an email, notifying us of a layoff or we spend the night tossing and turning, because someone we love is facing life threatening surgery in the morning. God doesn’t ask us to play make believe, pretending that nothing will ever go wrong. In fact, in today’s verse, He reminds us that in spite of all of these days, that try to tear us apart, His love remains the most powerful glue in the universe. This glue not only holds us together, but it keeps us stuck to His Purpose, His Plan and His Heaven. Nothing can separate us. No beating waves, no tragedy, no changing social norm, no failure no loss, or any enemy in the entire universe. All of these problems pale in comparison to the mighty force of His love, which was poured out at Calvary, and it will forever hold our hearts to Him!
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