Meeting the Healer...

There are few times during a month that my heart is so encouraged or convicted or moved as during my church's first sunday hymn sing. For one thing it is a very precious time for me with my dad. For a whole hour we get to sit together and do something we both love so much. I love to sing with him! Our voices are so much alike that sometimes, when we are singing the same part, I lose my voice in his and a piece of my world falls sweetly into place in a way that it never does at other times. I love when he sings tenor with me, although that seldom happens anymore because the high stuff is getting harder and harder for him to sing. I love singing bass with him and feeling my insides vibrate when I'v gone as absolutely low as I can. I love to sing high tenor when I sit beside him because he enjoys it so much and it makes my heart happy to have him delight in me. It is all round a precious time for both of us and with my current schedule its one of the few times I actually get to BE with him.

I love hymn sing for all the normal reasons too. I love that a whole group of people can get together and collectively praise God with the same words. I love to think of our collective praises lifting to Him in waves of shimmering colors, all iridescence and light and ever so precious and beautiful to Him! I love to feel the heartbeat of my church in our songs. There is something so magnificent about blending your voice with those around you until each is lost in the whole and your spirit lifts and sores with the glory of it! 

My favorite thing about hymn sing though is seeing God through the eyes of so many different writers. Each person has a slightly, or hugely, different view of who God is based on their individual experiences and relationship with Him. I love when I catch a glimpse of Him in a new light through the words of a song. That happened to me this past Sunday night and I would like to share it with you. 

We were singing songs about the life of Christ and one of the lines in the song we were singing said "Jesus is the Healer of every sickness, thats what He came to do". As i sang those words, I felt them sweep over me, and with them a new understanding of Who Jesus is. I don't know exactly why I never made the connection before in my mind, there are many verses that talk of Him healing our infirmities and broken hearts. I know the verses. I can quote some of them. But somehow the simple and profound reality of it all never soaked into my soul until that night.

At the beginning of the world God gave to man a choice, and, as we all know, man screwed it up. Big time! From then until Jesus came, animals had to die to cover the sins that man committed. The murders, lies, idolatry, perversion, thievery, and every other sin that we are still tempted to today, had to be atoned for somehow, and so animals died as a sacrifice for men. God accepted their sacrifices, but what of the ones they hurt? What of the innocent? What of the abused children, the wounded bystanders, the violated women, the shattered lives? There was no covering for pain. No sacrifice that could sooth the wounds or cover the sins committed by the guilty but born by an innocent.  And then Jesus came. 

Jesus. Savior. Redeemer. He came to bring us that sweet precious gift of salvation from the sins that do so very easily beset us. He came, He lived, He died, and He rose again so that ANYONE who will accept His gift and choose Him as Lord and Master and confess Him as such can be saved. Forever. Complete freedom from the sins we have committed. No going back, no sins crashing down again, no yearly sacrifice. He paid that price for us, once and for always. BUT Jesus came for another reason too. He came to REDEEM. Not only the sinner, but the victim. He came with healing in His hands and He offers healing just as freely as He offers salvation! The freedoms that He holds out and longs to bestow on each and every heart is not only freedom from OUR sins, but freedom from the chains placed upon us by others. Every nightmare, every memory, every horror ever committed in the world... He came to bring salvation both to the guilty and the innocent. 

Jesus longs to heal. He longs to touch those deepest, darkest, ugliest places. The sources of our greatest shame and heartache. He longs to free us from the hurt. He longs to turn the dark side of every violated, abused, abandoned, shattered soul to light and freedom and pure openness. He offers not a covering, not a blanket, not a knife to cut it deeper, not harsh words to help us 'get over it', but rather a balm. A complete cleansing. His healing, like salvation (which it also is) is there, waiting for you and I to ask for it. When we ask for His healing we must be fully open to Him in our hearts, just as when we ask Him to forgive our sins and lead our lives. He wants to be Lord, not only of your heart, but of your WHOLE heart. Including the broken places. I love understanding this side of Jesus. It thrills my heart to see, really see deep in my soul that Jesus hurts with every wounded child. He sees every tear that falls, never misses a slap, a curse, a leering look or touch. His heart longs to redeem both the giver and the receiver of every act of abuse or injustice. I love knowing that "Jesus is the Healer of every sickness, thats what He came to do."