Words by Anna Khoo. Image by Greg Rakozy, Unsplash.
Once we were all isolated.
We were strangers, really. There had been a time, in a garden long ago, where we truly knew each other.
But that was then and this is now.
There was no end to the suffering, the selfishness, the messy evil that poured from our mouths and hearts overflowed with pride, jealousy and anger.
We were sick, though not with anything anyone could see.
Affliction is not an illness, poverty is not an illness, but the poor and marginalised got the brunt of it.
One day a boy was born. Not as a warrior, or a rich man or a ruler of government.
He was gentle, loving, kind and bold in confronting evil.
Jesus was named a healer and a teacher of men.
Until, as he laid down his self as we never could, he was jeered at.
Physician, heal yourself.
He came to the broken and poor and welcomed them. To those isolated, he gave hope of renewal and redemption. And in his arms many found joy and peace.
That was then and this is now.
There is no PPE from sin. We are heart-sick, heart-sore but there is more, there is hope and there is life eternal.
And while this body is dying, the spirit is alive in Jesus.
He alone knows the valley of shadow like no other, he saves us from ourselves.
In that moment, as the Light of the World died, he absorbed the darkness we couldn’t see.
The darkness inside that cut us off from each other and God. That pulls apart relationships and makes our self-focus, our automatic response, tear our lives apart.
The story is that deep ache of separation in our hearts is real, and it’s always waiting on the edges of our vision and in this time we feel it all the more because we’re also a little helpless and controlled by something we can’t see.
But the bigger story, the important story began again when we were born again. When Jesus rose defeating sin, and sent his spirit to join us together, we became a family, a new priesthood, a holy nation, waiting for that new country, that new heavens and earth when all is made new. And we’re being healed from the inside out. We can put on the glory of Christ, the armour of him in the everyday as we reach out to those in pain. We have a life-giving story to share and pass on to the very ends of the earth.
And it goes:
Once we were isolated.
But then there was Christ, and now we are free.
Special thanks to Anna Khoo who wrote this for our blog. If you would also like to contribute towards our church blog, please get in touch with Ansy.