Faith Well Grounded

Some of my most prized possessions are the pretty pictures that my kids have drawn for me. My son draws pictures of us on the golf course or a picture of himself on the ball field. They all end up on my wall even though none of them look exactly like their objects—at least I hope not. (If they do, then I am extremely overweight, have a tiny head, and only three fingers per hand.)

What makes them important is two-fold. He cares enough to want me to have them, and he cares enough about the object (us together, playing golf) to memorialize them.

God, far from an artistically-gifted child, cares enough about us to have drawn pretty little pictures for us. They all point forward to our redemption—to Christ, the central character in whom our salvation was wrought. That act was of such vast importance to humanity that all of history pointed to it. It was so central in His mind, that it was preserved in that history as a reminder to us.

So, what do these pretty little pictures look like? They aren’t photographic, perfect representations. Like my son’s memorials, they are slightly different. The details are sketched in. But just like his pictures, that makes them all the more beautiful.

Genesis is a book that concentrates on humanity’s fall and need of redemption. It is a book of spiritual and physical death. Appropriately it ends in death, with the words, “…and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.”

But our God was and is a God of redemption. He didn’t want us stuck there. He had plans for our escape from that symbolic coffin, and He didn’t want us lost in anguish and hopelessness, so He continued the story in Exodus and foreshadowed our redemption. He drew a pretty little picture.

Moses was born under the death penalty. He was dead before he was born, as the pharaoh had ordered him and every other male Hebrew child killed at birth. But God saved him by casting him afloat—in “living water” if you will. He was then rescued and adopted into royalty. He was given a room in the palace, his new father’s house.

From death to royalty… That is God’s plan for you. He painted this sketchy little picture in preparation for an act that was then future and is now past. The King, become flesh, long ago pronounced that “It is finished”. Now, you can see the object that this pretty little picture foretold.

He cared enough to draw it. More importantly, He cared enough to suffer through it on your behalf. All you have to do is realize the beauty of this care and hang it on the wall of your heart.

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