Galatians 4:4-5 4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to son-ship.
I stood on a sandbar in eastern Peru, just a few hundred yards from the village to which I'd been sent to help one of our Wycliffe translators. My job was to cook meals, help the villagers with a few mechanical chores, and play with the kids. Build bridges and be a Christ follower to these humble brown skinned denizens of the Amazon basin rain-forest.
Looking up at that afternoon sky to the tune of the gurgling current, just a foot off the rippling surface of the Rio Colorado (yes, there is one in Peru!), I began to wonder about the remoteness of the cutoff jeans adorned teen and the sheep pastures surrounding Bethlehem. Was the God to whom I gave my heart, the same God who found His way into the world that cold night?
I knew the answer, but like Mary, pondering the miracle of his birth, my faith, and the contrast between the quiet beauty of the jungle and river against the harsh hours and days which would follow Mary and her tiny boy to his ministry and crucifixion, I was disturbed that the peace in my heart that afternoon, glorying in the deep green against the broken cumulus sky, not a contrail in sight, was replete, while Jesus' life had been marked with hardship from birth until he gave up His spirit to complete the first step of salvation for all of man, whether he could read or passed oral tradition.
No matter if I'd been still on the prairies of Kansas, or this tiny jut of sand during dry season so close to north west Brazil, God had spread His gift to the deeply tanned gringo kid, as well as the just exposed Amarakaeri village around the river bend. Those mostly naked indians were getting bits and pieces of the New Testament in their language and asking hundreds of questions about this God who could heal sickness, cast out demons, and bring a missionary thousands of miles from his home, to give these people hope through the story of salvation!
Lord, please heal our nation...please heal the broken hearts of people in cities and wheat bearing fields. Angry or laughing, we're all shattered until we find the peace that passes all understanding. Open eyes, reconcile hearts, mend battered souls.
