On HGTV's popular show "Fixer Upper," Chip and Joanna Gaines open each episode with a variation on "we take the worst houses in the best neighborhoods
—
diamonds in the rough
—
and turn them into something special." More than just a great motto for home improvement, here, too, is the Christmas story:
Jesus came to turn the broken hearts of sinful mankind, on this beautiful planet He created for His and our good pleasure, into a new, everlasting creation built for fullness of joy and His glory.
"Hallelujah!" never seemed so appropriate.
But not only that, just as the Gaines don't transform dead houses into masterpieces by just slapping on a coat of paint here and there, Jesus doesn't do band-aids when it comes to healing and transforming our hearts. In fact, the moment we said, "Lord, You alone have the words of eternal life — You are our only hope," our irregular, misdirected heartbeat became brand new and pure in His eyes. And for all the scars from arrows of word and deed we've accumulated since childhood, the Binder Upper is right there still in the midst of the brokenness, providing around-the-clock care, assurance, and protection.
While some of those scars are miraculously healed, others can seem healed one minute but then flare up again the next, triggered by an accuser who is constantly trying to rip open those old wounds in our minds, and almost always along the lines of: "God doesn't really like you all that much."
It's pretty easy to rip open a band-aid that has been slapped on and left alone. Instead, Jesus is the Binder Upper who works completely and thoroughly, always for our good. He is the Warrior Lover who guards the vulnerable spots with His very presence, and with Words of assurance that trump the adversary's lies every single time:
It is a compassionate, patient, attentive process designed to cultivate Father-son/daughter relationship and trust. One where words of positive identity are increasingly absorbed and thrown in the face of the accuser. And along the way, in the goodness of the healing and the fight, the One who came from heaven to earth has an uncanny way of continually arranging Divine appointments with others whose heart-busted wounds may be similar to ours...to encourage, to stand by, and to run with.
This is the magnificent power and love of the Binder Upper born in a manger. Tidings of comfort and joy, all around.
While some of those scars are miraculously healed, others can seem healed one minute but then flare up again the next, triggered by an accuser who is constantly trying to rip open those old wounds in our minds, and almost always along the lines of: "God doesn't really like you all that much."
It's pretty easy to rip open a band-aid that has been slapped on and left alone. Instead, Jesus is the Binder Upper who works completely and thoroughly, always for our good. He is the Warrior Lover who guards the vulnerable spots with His very presence, and with Words of assurance that trump the adversary's lies every single time:
"See what an incredible quality of love the Father has shown to us, that we would be permitted to be named and called and counted the children of God! And so we are!"
It is a compassionate, patient, attentive process designed to cultivate Father-son/daughter relationship and trust. One where words of positive identity are increasingly absorbed and thrown in the face of the accuser. And along the way, in the goodness of the healing and the fight, the One who came from heaven to earth has an uncanny way of continually arranging Divine appointments with others whose heart-busted wounds may be similar to ours...to encourage, to stand by, and to run with.
This is the magnificent power and love of the Binder Upper born in a manger. Tidings of comfort and joy, all around.
"A Christian is not simply a person who is forgiven and goes to heaven. A Christian, in terms of his or her deepest identity, is a saint, a spiritually born child of God, a divine masterpiece, a child of light, a citizen of heaven." - Neil T. Anderson
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