Tribute to the Fallen

Broken
Guilty
In pain
Abandoned
Outcast
Unwanted
Weary
Unworthy
Orphan

Not exactly a pretty picture, is it? Yet I wonder, how many of those words describe your life?

Sadly enough, I could paint every one of them over the canvas of my soul…maybe they don’t all describe me today, but they each describe a portion of my life’s journey. And I guarantee you that although my life’s canvas has been covered over with some just-as-descriptive, attractive words, the paint that inscribed those above can often be chipped back to the service when life’s abrasions rub me thin.

My husband was a fireman for 25 years, and if one thing was drilled into my head and the brains of our children, it was the all-too-familiar “stop, drop and roll”. As I came to know Christ – really know that He loved me and wanted a relationship with me - I came to understand those three words in a new way – especially in light of the “old” painting of myself described above. I began to think this way: Stop what you are doing, drop to your knees, and roll all your cares onto Jesus, Connie, because He cares for YOU!

Colossians 3:1 describes it this way: If you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ – that’s where the action is. See things from His perspective. Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life – even though invisible to spectators – is with Christ in God. He is your life.

I found myself often times this week with my eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of me. And as I began absorbed (even self-absorbed), the “old” me surfaced….feelings of guilt, pain, brokenness and being unwanted bathed me, causing me more weariness than any one person could possibly carry….until I was reminded…There are no orphans of God.

Sister, if you know Jesus as your Savior, you are no orphan. You have been bought with the blood of Jesus, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. He is your life!

Avalon sings it this way:

O blessed Father, look down upon us -We are Your children, we need Your love. We run before Your throne of mercy And seek Your face to rise above. There are no strangers -There are no outcasts -There are no orphans of God. So many fallen, but hallelujah! There are no orphans of God!

If today finds you falling, may it be to your knees, where you will roll all your cares over onto Him, knowing that He loves you far more than you can imagine.