The Fire

 

I have finally finished the book of Ezekiel and today I get to read Daniel. This foray into the prophets has been heart-stopping and eye-opening and has come with a definite conviction that I/we need to stop putting God in a box. Somehow, we get into this pattern of thinking that God can only act a certain way, but the prophets dispel this notion. God is NOT predictable; He is not confined to acting in ways that WE find acceptable; God is God, He has a plan, and He WILL work out that plan according to HIS design. In C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, Aslan the lion (who is the representation of Jesus) is described as “He’s wild you know, not like a tame lion”. Lewis did a good job with Alsan as he depicted our Lord – wild, unpredictable, but good.

I am looking forward to Daniel, especially the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. I LOVE the picture of Jesus literally walking in the fire with the three men. They didn’t have to trust and believe in God’s Presence – He  actually showed up in physical form and walked through the fire with them. That whole mind picture makes my heart race – sometimes I wish my eyes could literally see Jesus in the fires I am in. I wish I could see His face. Life is full of fires, and I know that Jesus is there in every one of them, but because I walk by faith and not by sight, acknowledging His Presence is a choice – I cannot literally see Him. Well... I can’t until someone who is Jesus-with-the-skin-on is willing to walk in the fire with me.

Once, when I was young and circumstances had me feeling like I was living an internal hell on earth, God sent a woman named Diana into my life. Looking back, I really believe that her being there at that time saved my life. She ‘saw’ me in ways that no one else did; she loved the real me when I felt like no one else did. I believe it was a Holy Spirit thing where she was seeing me and loving me through the eyes of Christ – she was Jesus-with-the-skin-on when I desperately needed to know He was there. I was in so much pain that I was suicidal at that point in time, but she would write me tender messages of the beauty she saw in me; she would sit and hug me and pray for me; sometimes she would just let me be in the space where she was working. She was a physical reminder for me that Jesus saw, He knew, He cared. She was a gift from Him at a time when I desperately needed to not be alone.

I think experiencing that has played a part in who I have become, I never undervalue the concept of being Jesus-with-the-skin-on with someone who is walking through a fire. I have sat in the flames of disillusionment, loneliness, rejection, heartache, despair, and brokenness many times with a brother or sister who needed to know that he/she was not alone. By being there, by ‘seeing’ them, by loving them, I have tried to be a physical reminder that God sees them and God loves them in the midst of what they are walking through. I don’t always do a perfect job of conveying Jesus, but I know that I try really really hard. I KNOW that God sees us, that God loves us, that God walks alongside us in our pain, and I want my life to be a reminder to others of Who this Glorious God is.