Death to life.
Those three words sound like I wrote them backwards. Isn’t it life first, then comes death? In the natural body, yes but NOT in our inner man.
We don’t view our toes as much in respect to the rest of the members of our body. In fact, we take them for granted – until they break. THEN they become VERY needful.
I had TWO broken toes on which I had surgery. Five pins later and a cast and pain medicine, and I saw the value of these small members of my body.
Fast forward to the doctor being unsure if one of the toes would survive the trauma of the surgery. It had been so far gone already, that I guess if it survived that would be a miracle. The word “amputate” came up.
Wait. Amputate? Well, yes! It was turning black and seemed to have NO blood flow, and no life. (An AHA moment here for me.)
My little toe got my full attention and the wheels in my brain starting turning. How many times in our lives do we SEE only with our eyes? We see a broken person, a discarded idea, a dashed dream, and all manner and signs of lifelessness. We think it’s over.
Nevertheless.
Such a great word. Nevertheless. It is a word used in the Bible 237 times, when God showed up at a moment of impending doom and irrevocable defeat. He shows up with reconstructive soul surgery, grace, mercy, and a million ways of healing what ails us. The feeling of experiencing a ‘nevertheless’ moment feels like that breath of air you breathe in during a moment of WHAT IF. It is what HOPE feels like.
So, I go to a wound specialist for his expert opinion on the fate of my toe. I went with my blood pressure soaring and a resolve to accept whatever he said, even if it was bad. I mean after all, I could see my own toe and it was comparable to the foot of a character on The Walking Dead. Just sayin’
The doctor walks in the room, sits down, quietly examines my foot, looks up at me and says, “Well? Looks good to me!”
Wait. What?
He saw PAST the layer of blackened dead skin. The doctor KNEW what was happening beneath the surface. He saw healing. You DO see where this is going, right?
Without being too graphic here, the doctor gently removed an entire layer that was wrapped around my toe. It reminded me of a cocoon, like after it is shed by the butterfly within. You know, the butterfly that had previously been a worm.
I had a NEVERTHELESS moment. Before my eyes was a visual of death to LIFE, blackened dead skin removed and NEW skin growing beneath. I wish I could show you but I will spare you that. Just know, it felt like a tiny miracle from the overlooked, tiny member of my body.
”Oh ye dry bones, hear the Word of the Lord. Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you and you shall LIVE.” (Ezekiel 37) Bones are the last remnants of our human body. They represent (no irony here) – RESURRECTION!
What else to say?
God is amazing. He uses our human body in all its fascinating splendor to teach us of His ways. Regeneration, healing, renewal, fresh, do overs, make overs – whatever you want to call it, the human body is your own personal biology and Bible teacher. God’s ultimate plan is “…to perfect that which concerneth you.” (Psalm 138:8)
Those people you think are goners? Nope. That dream you think went up in smoke? Nope? That impossible with no way out situation? Nope. All resurrection power is alive and well in the very name of Jesus! “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet (nevertheless) shall he live.” (John 11:25) “For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” (Luke 15:24)
Lost among the shadows,
buried by what once was.
Shrouded by the darkness,
captive in death’s jaws.
From the ground a song is rising.
Life has come to the broken.
No more sorrow, no more crying
Heaven has spoken.
Love has come
to be a resurrection.
Death to life!
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Read also: He Speaks To The Storm And Brings Peace
