RESTORATION: JESUS-STYLE

RESTORATION: JESUS-STYLE

Our family has just gone through a very difficult season. Late last summer, one of Carol’s sisters, Norma, was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given just a few months to live. The level of care that she needed was not available in her area (about an hour east of us) and so we moved her into a private care facility not far from where we live. Needless to say, our home became the hub of a huge amount of activity. Because of the gravity of the situation, relatives from across the nation made special trips, some more than once, to spend time with Norma. Brothers (three) and sisters (three) and many of their children came to visit and cheer her.

Carol was with her sister at the care facility every day, sometimes twice or three times a day, for almost three months. Norma wanted to live until December and she made that a part of her conversation with the Lord. At three minutes after midnight on December 1, Norma very quietly and gently “left” us and went into eternity to be with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Just a word about Norma. I knew her for slightly more than 42 years. She was a gentle, strong, caring, artistic person. She was very talented both musically and artistically. Above all else, Norma loved and served the Lord and was incredibly evangelistic right to the very end and beyond. She asked us to send a notice of her death to all her high school classmates along with an evangelistic tract that she especially liked, and so we have done that.

With a certain amount of alarm, I watched the physical and emotional toll that Norma’s sickness and care was taking on my wife. There is a love and a bond between siblings that is different from the love and affection shared with an outsider who marries into a family and I recognize that. It concerned me as I watched my wife expend herself into exhaustion day after day, and I struggled to know what to say, as this was her sister.

Carol and I did talk about the exhaustion and she did at points try to slow down, but her sister was dying and that would not go away. My wife has a glorious but not rebellious stubborn streak in her. Her husband will give her a stern admonition about something, his wife will look at him with just the hint of a smile on her face, and when he finishes his excellent, if somewhat illogical argument, she will nod and then go and do what she was doing before. I love the strength in my wife; she is nobody’s doormat and never has been, and that includes me.

It’s been six weeks now since Norma died and life is not fully back to normal. I was praying for my wife a few days ago, talking with the Lord about her being refreshed in body, soul and spirit, and the Lord took me to the first verses of Psalm 23 and showed me some things I had not seen before.

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul” (Psalm 23:1-3a).

Green pastures. I am a city boy. When I think of green pastures, I see a lush lawn, a beautiful park, a green field. While those are certainly true pictures, they miss the import of what the Psalmist was describing. The sheep really loved to be taken to a part of the pasture where the new shoots of grass had just pushed through the soil. They were refreshed by the grass that was new, fresh and really good eating. This grass was not older and ready to go to seed; it had not been dried by the sun and beaten around by the wind. This was new, succulent grass that was full of everything that was nourishing and refreshing.

What a powerful point of understanding! If we will let Him, He will lead us to where the grass is green and the eating is good and refreshing! I have written before about what I call “comfort food” and that devotional is worth rereading. You can look in the blog archives at what I wrote on September 10, 2007, or if you send me an e-mail and request it, I will send you an e-mail attachment with the article.

Still waters. Shepherds in the Holy Land knew that their sheep would not drink from fast-moving rivers or streams. The shepherds would create small, quiet pools at the side of the stream so that the sheep could drink and be refreshed. What a wonderful picture this is of our loving and caring Shepherd. He knows that we are fresh from the battle and that our lives have been stretched and our nerves are on edge. Out of love and respect, He creates for us a sanctuary of prayer where it is not only quiet and refreshing but the feeding is good. He wants us to be able to drink of Him and drink deeply until we are replenished.

He restores my soul. The traditional thinking on this phrase is that it is referring to the soul who has been lost and is now being restored to its rightful place in God. And while that interpretation is right, it falls far short of what this psalm is saying. This is a restoration promise for those who are already a part of the family of God. This is for the tired and exhausted worker who has toiled through the heat of the day, through the fierceness of the battle and now, to them, comes the “refreshing hand of God and they are quickened by Him.”

God’s hand reaches to the tired and weary and He says, “Let me lead you, and feed you and restore you! This is a gift and I give it freely to all who will receive.” This is a picture of a caring Shepherd who personally guides our restoration; He makes us lie down; He leads us beside the still waters—and He restores our soul.

Restoration is a process; it takes time and it cannot be rushed! I heard Dr. Jack Hayford once say, “Repentance is instantaneous but restoration takes time.” How wise is that!