By guest blogger Rebekah Bush
I always love receiving blogs from guest bloggers. They are fun to read and digest. This week’s guest blogger happens to be my daughter, Rebekah. Rebekah recounts a story in this blog that I have told several times also, it is always worthy of a good laugh, but the application that Rebekah draws from it to our walk with the Lord is perfect. Her writing truly resonated with me, and I know it will resonate with you, too.
Anne Farnum
“I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.”
Isaiah 44:22
My children love to hear good stories- stories from the countless audio books we’ve played in the van, bed time stories made up from their Papa about their favorite fictional characters and even stories about my childhood. I was telling them one of these the other day and even though they had already heard it and knew the ending, they chorused, “tell it again!”
Many years ago when I was elementary school, we lived in a ranch home in upstate New York and in the backyard we had a small above ground pool. We spent our summers swimming in that modest pool and running round and round to create a whirlpool effect with the water so we could float on the current. There was one main rule with the pool- Don’t step on the side! The pool side was not sturdy enough to hold the weight of even a child so we were always told to be careful not to step on it as we got in and out.
One afternoon my brother had our neighbor over to swim as was often the case. Well on this infamous day, while my brother was sitting in a blow up boat, the neighbor boy got out and broke the sacred rule. As soon as his weight hit the side, the pool wall collapsed, water began rushing toward the screen door and my brother rode the wave in his boat until he collided with the side of our house! The water rushed into our mud room door and my mother, who saw the commotion, began trying to sweep the water back out of the house! What a mess!
In the blink of an eye, the neighbor boy uttered a famous few words that we still laugh about today, “uh I think I hear my mom and dad calling. I need to go home.”
And he bolted.
As I was retelling this story the other day and the boys were giggling over the scene conjured up in their minds (especially of their uncle in the boat), I couldn’t help but think that for all the grief we give the neighbor boy in the story for not owning up to his actions, maybe he wasn’t so off base after all. He knew exactly where to go when he had messed up and things weren’t going well. He ran home.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the same is true for us with the Lord.
Isaiah 44:22 tells us, “I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.”
The passage is talking about Israel repenting and turning from their sin, but the same is true for us today in Jesus. When we mess up (big or small), we too can run home to our Father’s safety rather than face life and brokenness alone. Our gracious God opens up His arms to us and sweeps away our offenses. He wants us to return to Him, to find healing and safety in Him. And we can find joy in knowing that it is His loving-kindness that leads us to repentance before Him and allows us to make things right with others.
If you’re feeling burdened by the weight of you life choices and circumstances (accidental or on purpose) take a lesson from our neighbor boy and run home! We have a Father who willingly meets us in our mess and has given us the Holy Spirit to change us to be more like Him. What a relief that we don’t have to wade through our brokenness alone. In Jesus there is hope!
Meet Rebekah:
Rebekah lives with her husband, 4 boys, a cat, 15 chickens and soon to be a puppy in a fixer upper ranch in the woods. When she’s not busy homeschooling and running her boys to sport’s practice, she loves to bake, hike and dream of the next house project! Rebekah has always enjoyed writing and loves to share what the Lord is teaching her through it.
Anne Farnum 