I love a movie with a good twist at the end. The first time I saw M. Night Shamaylan’s “Sixth Sense,” my mind was blown by the BIG REVEAL! Since then, I’ve wised up and learned to look for the tell-tale signs; but when one can really get me, I love it.
God is fan of big twists at the end as well. I often wish that I could read the Bible for the first time all over again. Being raised in the church, the stories become old hat, and lose some of their shock and awe.
The twist-device that I think God is most fond of is the old ruin vs. rescue switcheroo. Think of Moses in the basket or Jonah in the belly of the fish. If we didn’t already know the ending to these stories, we would be biting our nails in anticipation of their certain death. Who puts a baby in a river to SAVE them? Who responds to an S.O.S. with a terrifying sea creature?
In my life, I like for my rescues to be a little more obvious than that. To be able to look out and say, “Hey...I think things are going to be okay!” I love these stories, because they are reminders that the story is not over yet. In the end, what seemed like total chaos and ruin, was actually what got them to where they needed to be. I am not one to say that everything happens for some greater purpose, but I am one to say that there can be a greater purpose in everything that happens. If God can turn the belly of a fish into a life-raft, then he can turn the sticky, stinky, rotten parts of my life into something more beautiful as well.
When the soldiers, disciples, and those gathered looked on at cross that day, they saw ruin and defeat. We know different. God’s greatest plot-twist was taking an instrument of death and turning it into a symbol of salvation. What the world saw as foolish, we know to be greatest expression of love we have ever seen.
When life gives you ruin and defeat, it can be hard to see how God can ever make things right again. This Lenten season, as we journey together through the final weeks of Jesus’ life, think of these stories and begin to look for your rescue amidst the ruin!
Written by Keely DeBoever
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