Redemption

As a parent, if I don’t show my children what to do in times of trouble, who will? What will they turn to?

In my toughest moment, I turned to many wrong things.  I lost time, and I lost precious opportunities to teach my children how to handle struggles, trials, disappointment, and pain.

Once I realized this, I sunk into a pit that wrapped me up in hopelessness.  I thought that I lost the only time that I had.  I thought that my choices and what I turned to wrecked them.

One day, I shared these feelings with a close friend of mine.  She said something that struck me, and stayed with me, and gave me hope… She said that God is a redeemer of time.

I didn’t realize the depth of this when she first said it.  I had to see it to believe it.

I see it daily now.  My oldest child joined the Army, and it fits him perfectly.  He is exactly where he was created to be.  The puzzle pieces connected.  My choices didn’t wreck him.  The time I thought I had lost has been redeemed.  God was interested in his life.  He was able to guide him in spite of me.

The Redeemer of time showed up tonight when I was reading the Bible with my children.   This is a new thing, and we are going to try to stick with it this time around.  We just pick a random book and read a chapter, and then compare translations.

My son said, “God thinks of me??? LeBron James is pretty famous, and he doesn’t think of me, but God thinks of me?”

Time. Redeemed. Amazingly.

He understood, in that moment, what it took me 43 years to comprehend! The Creator of EVERYTHING loves me.  He created me, on purpose, uniquely, to do something special; something only I can do.  Exactly what that is remains a mystery to me, but I will continue to seek it, daily.

I also realized, inside this lesson about redemption, that this job (a.k.a. “life”) is too big to do on my own.  That is exactly why I don’t have to do it on my own…

God guided my oldest son to the place he was meant to be.  I believe He will do the same with me, and my children.

The time and opportunities that I thought I wrecked might have just merely been forks in the road.

When I thought I chose the wrong path, it wasn’t.

It happened to be the road I learned from, and met God on.

It turned out to be exactly where I was supposed to be, at that exact moment.

Redemption.  Purpose.  Mystery.  Beautiful.