arm will go anywhere, to redeem anyone, from anything.
That changes any temptation to judge or reject.
A man came in the store the other day, and as I was putting his groceries in the bag I found myself getting bad vibes from him. He seemed right full of himself. Then he pointed to a colleague of mine. "See that woman over there on register three? She gives me a tongue-lashing every time I go to her register! I don't think she likes men!"
I replied, "Mary? Oh, Mary likes men. She is very nice to me always." I know Mary to be as conscientious and kind as they come. This customer then starts spouting Bible verses at me and asks me if I know Christ personally. I thought to myself, yes, mister, that is why I just came to Mary's defense and avoided judging her as you just did so piously.
Do you have a temptation to judge or reject some other people? Can we learn how to avoid doing that? Ann believes that the answer is in beholding His Glory:
Behold His glory — and your raging heart will be held.
In other words, when we are tempted to judge another person, maybe we should instead focus on our Redeemer. If that man was truly in fellowship with Christ, would he have been obsessed with judging and criticizing someone on the other side of the store? I think not. We surely do fool ourselves, don't we?
Ann writes,
I once saw a picture of a girl.
She’d taken chalk and drawn a picture on the concrete of her mother, so she could see her mother right there.
And then she’d taken off her shoes, like she knew it’s all holy ground, and she’d crawled up to where the heart would beat — and she’d fallen asleep next to a love like that.
Her mother drawn all around her.
Is there a way to live so that a person can see how Christ is drawn all around you, holding you in His arms with His redeeming love?
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