Lightning Strikes of Love
Gathered around the Throne of Grace are ragamuffins, vagabonds and ne'er-do-wells. They are very happy to be there, everyone else appears to have other things on their minds and are not present.
With the delight that only heaven can hold the Father beams without restraint from His throne – you are my sons and daughters, I am your very proud father.
These fatherless and motherless all gathering before His throne, almost in unison tear-up. Moisture wells in their eyes as they hang their heads and collapse to their knees. They have never heard such words spoken over them before.
Their loving heavenly father delights in their very presence and is about to commission each of them into His service. He will charge them with the joy of calling, present them with the pleasure of purpose and affirm them in heaven before sending them afresh across the earth to complete His wonderful bidding.
In their tearful humility and their broken joy, this Father’s radiant eyes shoot forth lightning strikes of love as He realizes they are still unable to complete His call upon their lives.
With a love as deep as the heavens are endless, with complete and perfect understanding He withholds His commission.
These rascals, these refuse of the world, love Him with all the love their shrunken hearts can muster -- He knows this of course. Yet still they are incomplete, still many pieces within each of them require repair and re-assembly.
The Father then turns to His left and commissions His Holy Spirit. He says:
Fill these loved ones of OURS with US, join their cracks so that they will feel my love strengthen their weakened spirits, seal their open wounds and heal all their scars. They so fiercely want to serve us, they love us and they will not rebel. We hold their torn hearts – they trust us like no other. Speak gently, be their advocate, affirm their graces and approve their person - tell them this. Do these things for them, for they have never received such good intentions or attentions, not even from their own parents who I trusted with them.
Replace their dishonor with honor, correct their injustice with justice and fight for them before men. They need this so desperately.
Pour our healing into their spirit, anoint their soul with our love and lift their bodies with our grace. They can do nothing without us but want to do everything for us. We must repair and restore them before commissioning them.
Jesus witnesses this interchange. He always does, as He is completely privy to all the activity of the Throne of Grace, for He too is seated there.
Clothed in an inexpressible radiance and a glowing white that is beyond this world, the Son has risen and approaches these humble lost, least, last and lonely who so devotedly kneel before Him.
As He ponders these flotsam and jetsam of humanity that love Him so much, He feels their needy tears and agonises at their heads hung so low, He reaches out to each of them.
All the rejected, the despised and the forlorn remain on their knees, heads low in humility and hearts high in adoration until Jesus stands in front of them. They do not even realize when He stands beside them. It is not until He stands before them and their eyes apprehend the wounds of His feet, does He touch their chin intending to elevate their bodies and then embrace them. Only those who have fallen in humility at the feet of Jesus will ever witness the scars on His feet and receive His embrace. The Man of Sorrows died for the men of sorrows.
His nail-scarred hands with palms uplifted lightly reach under each damp and troubled chin. Their tears pool in the hollows of His scars, but he will not shake His hands dry for their tears are too precious to Him. As each now looks up across His tortured palms, their tears flow more richly as they truly witness His personal cost for them. They had just simply believed and been repeatedly reinforced for so long in their own worthlessness.
The elders of heaven who constantly surround the Throne of Grace are fully engaged spectators in this unfolding drama of love before their eyes. All the heavenly creatures, the cherubim and seraphim simply cease moving and gaze. The praise of heaven is not interrupted but the voices are shaking with emotion.
He takes each individually by their hands and raises them to their feet, one at a time. Firmly He folds His arms around each set of shoulders and embraces the heart of His disciple with a love not of this earth (not that they could realise this for they had felt little love on earth anyway). From His embrace, His love courses through their entire being, it is so strong that their flow of tears now becomes torrents. In fact Jesus’ embrace will remain with them for their entire life time. (Curiously Jesus is always exactly the correct height to embrace each of His devotees for their comfort, regardless of their height. His arms are always the correct length to hold them completely).
This scene in heaven happens in an eternal instant. The Father then acts to re-start the commissioning for these broken sinners that are now blessed saints. The Holy Spirit is also ready to complete His commission for each of these loved ones.
Yet, on earth this scene has been played out across decades, until the lightning strikes of His love have completely brought restoration to those He has called and knows by name. Only then does His commissioning begin.
Sept 7th 2010. – Is 43:1d, Jer 33:6, Eph 1:20, 2:6