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Monday, February 13, 2012

A Marvel

According to Webster’s, a marvel is something that evokes awe, amazement, inspiration, wonder, and astonishment. A marvel is an unexpected beauty such as a lush garden growing up in a vast arid and lifeless desert, or a pristine gold palace standing forgotten in a clearing of an unexplored jungle, or you, my dear wife.

When Pastor Rob Renfroe spoke yesterday at the Woodlands United Methodist Church in Houston about Dorcas, which means gazelle in the Greek, as a woman who Luke in his book of Acts specifically called a disciple of Christ because she had walked intimately and completely with Christ, I thought of you.

When Rob further explained that the reason Peter had been summoned after Dorcas died was most likely not because they wanted him to resurrect her—even though he did exactly that--nor speak kind words over her corpse, but to see a true disciple by the holes her passing had left in the hearts of those who survived her, I thought of you; for I, as did those who had known and loved Dorcas, want the world to meet this testimony of God’s intervention in the fallen world of a desperate and lost humanity, look into her face, and find there a true reflection of Christ.

And when Pastor Renfroe concluded that residents of Joppa (modern Jaffa) where Dorcas had lived and Peter had rightly called Dorcas a disciple because she hadn’t merely talked about love but truly loved, I thought of you.

This is why. You bravely confronted the grotesque, after others had turned away, and reached through it to rescue a soul in anguish; on countless occasions you rolled-up your sleeves to clean messes exceeding the delicacies of most people for the sake of human dignity; you dared to enter frightful places to comfort and care for the infirmed; and you would do it all again should the need arise. Even now, you suffer as you reach out to catch little ones before they disappear between the cracks, and you grieve those who have already fallen beyond your grasp; you feed Christ when He is hungry; you clothe Him when he is naked; you heal Him when He is sick.

Some might claim I exaggerate, that my love for you has blinded me to the truth. Not so, because I have seen the fruit of your work. Lives have been changed; souls have been freed; I regularly observe people gravitating to you just to experience, if for only a moment, a piece of heaven. Indeed, in your presence we all discover love.

Dorcas lived what God calls good, and so have others after her. Today, my beautiful wife, you succeed them by your faithfulness to Christ; at this very moment, my sweet girl, you show us what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

I urge everyone to come and see a true disciple. I call people from near and far to learn from a woman who walks in the kingdom of God. I invite all to study her love in Christ. Maybe with such a sure witness of God’s grace we can finally put away the bickering, the posturing, the politics, the endless search of proofs, and determine to submit to that same grace and love mercy, act justly, and walk humbly before God.

Come one and all, and watch as justice unfolds in love. Join me, and behold a marvel!

2 comments:

Andrea K. Van Ye said...

yes she is all of this, bruce ... she is a beauty ... inside and out.

Tricia Morris said...

Your Sara is precious beyond compare. I see God's love in her countenance!