I was recently touched by someone’s very personal and very real story. While in the moment, I was drenched in empathy for this person’s story of pain and betrayal. The person had come to expect one thing in particular. And then— she met her redeemer. And like so many redeemers, they appear of God’s appointment and usually are not obvious to the receiver.
In this Judeo-Christian holy week, I can’t help but think about our Heavenly Redeemer. Jesus who died and rose again on the third day (Easter). His blood was the symbolic “lamb’s blood” that the Jews were instructed to paint over their doorways to be spared of the final plague upon the Egyptians as celebrated during Passover. No more lambs need to be sacrificed for our salvation. Jesus was the final slayed lamb— for our broken souls.
Everyone needs a redeemer at some point in their life. Ruth found her kinsman redeemer in Boaz in the Bible. Sometimes people need redeeming after catastrophic crisis events and some in more mild circumstances. But, I think we can all agree that we cannot always do life of our own power and wisdom. God is the Ultimate Redeemer, but he sends people into our lives to do his redeeming work.
For this friend, who was very young at the time, God sent a person about their age. Although it seems very unlikely that a twenty year old could be in a position to redeem another twenty year old. But, it indeed happened. God bestowed upon the person the wisdom and love they needed to redeem the receiver, the beloved.
I could take this one step further and say that God will use who he, in his infinite wisdom, deems perfectly suited to redeem another one of his children. My own husband, although NOT a Christian, did redeem me in many ways. I would like to think I redeemed him as well. But sometimes it is not reciprocal. Many times the call to redeem another person is entirely sacrificial and servant like (one-sided).
I would like to think of Easter as celebrating the penultimate redemption of all time. A self sacrifice for everyone, believers and non believers, the imperfect and the imperfect (wink), and for the weak and the strong. It was Easter time four years ago when I accepted God as my Redeemer as a born-again burning for Christ Christian.
But in his perfect Grace, he had blessed me throughout my life and not just when I crumpled at his feet. God is in all of us. We all are part redeemer. It is time we answered the call to redeem people in our midst. All to His Glory… the One who rose again! Praise God~
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