“Forgiven” - What a Beautiful Word!
“Well, that’s new.” Not exactly what I was expecting to hear from my primary care doctor during a routine office visit.
Apparently, something that wasn’t supposed to be there was making itself at home in my body and was growing at a rapid pace. Next stop – imaging center, followed by a visit to a specialist.
The specialist was really laid back, and he put me at ease right away. After walking through a few possible next steps, surgery seemed the wisest option on the table. The tissue removed would be sent to pathology afterwards to test for malignancy.
On the morning of July 11 – three days post-op – the specialist’s office number popped up on my phone. I don’t remember much of the conversation, but after concluding the call, I do remember thinking, “‘Benign’ is a beautiful word!” I walked straight into the room where my husband was and blurted out the good news! We fell together in one of the tightest hugs of our 42 years of marriage, relief and emotion overcoming both of us.
If I hadn’t gone in for that PCP visit, I might have never figured out that something was off. It took a specialist to diagnose and treat me so that I would be free of that health issue.
Like a specialist, the Great Physician looks at us and can immediately see things that we may be blind to. He examines our hearts, and to a person, He diagnoses a deadly disease growing inside each one of us that if left unchecked, will eventually take our very lives. We’re consumed by sin-sickness, and the prognosis is sure and final. Death is coming. We’re helpless and hopeless without a Cure.
But praise God – there is a Cure! And the Cure came to us in Bethlehem of Judea over 2,000 years ago.
God-in-flesh was born to be the Antidote to the poison of the enemy. He would one day willingly lay down His perfect life as a sacrifice to break the fever of the curse and to reverse the outcome from death to life. He would literally crush death by the power of His resurrection. It was a costly remedy, but the Father and the Son were willing to provide it. Suffering humanity – weary, weak, blind, and lame – was the apple of their eye. Moved by an unimaginable love and tenderness toward us, the Cure was made available to all who would recognize and admit the severity of their need for not just a healthier life, but a new life.
Those who hold out their hands in humility and repentance are welcomed by the compassionate arms of the Great Physician, Who makes all things new. On that day, they’re restored to their true lives, and they hear the most beautiful word – “forgiven.”
The cutting wounds of this world, the infectious draw of addictions, the brokenness of all that God intended should be whole – for all of this, a Cure was born on that first Christmas, and with it a promise was made. One day, all will be healed.
“Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits – Who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, Who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” – Psalm 103:2-5
“…Jesus said to them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’” – Mark 2:17
