An Intertwined Love

Ever feel like you aren't good enough? Maybe you've done some things thinking they would fill you up, but they've just left you even more empty. You've got a want in your heart, a longing to be loved, but no matter what you do people just seem to take you for granted. The people you want to love you start to ask more and more of you, until you've given away everything for them. The one thing you were so committed to saving for the future has now become a dirty stain of the present, a tiny thread holding the "love" together, a stitch of what has become the scarlet letter sewn across your life. The only point that is special about your past, or maybe even your present, is that it is especially painful. Your innocence is gone and so are they. So here you are - wadded up like a piece of trash, discarded like you never existed or ever were important. What hope do you have in finding that real, unquestionable, sacrificial love you've been searching for, but always seem to fall so desperately short of?

Believe me, there's more hope than you know! My life hasn't been spared of these poor choices, but I am more than the sum of my past mistakes. As it turns out, I was just looking for love in all the wrong places. I wanted so badly to manufacture this romanticized concept of love that is strewn across any form of media today, the propaganda that glorifies instant gratification, that I forgot about God. However, He gave me a second chance with every passing breath. Take a deep breath. Go ahead, I can wait... Feel the light air parade into your growing lungs as your chest begins to press back with every fleeting moment. That, friend, was a gift from God. You don't deserve it just as I don't deserve to be sitting here writing this, but God's love abounds for us. He passionately loves me more than any other love I will ever know. He gives people like me and you a chance at hope and abundant life.

Take Rahab, for instance (Joshua 2). Rahab lived in the city of Jericho roughly 1500-2000 years before Christ entered the world, her house a part of the city's outer wall. She lived her life as a harlot, selling her body as a means to get by. She was probably about as far away from pure as one could be, her scarlet letter lifestyle left behind scars and memories too deep to recount. So far, it seemed that she had no chance at ever living an upstanding lifestyle, let alone getting right with God. But God had other plans for her.

Knock, Knock, Knock. Two spies sent by Joshua (and ultimately God) from the land of Israel were at Rahab's door. They were scoping out Jericho on how to conquer it, and they needed a place to stay in order to evade possible capture. Not yet knowing their motives, she let them stay. However, it was soon gossip around town that Rahab was keeping two of Joshua's spies in her house; those nosey neighbors! The king of Jericho, not too fond of the Israelites, sent troops to dispose of the men. Rahab, apparently aware of the impending danger, hid the spies on her roof. When the troops came to question her, she lied and told them that the men had left and must be pursued quickly. The troops left, hustling to find the spies. Wow, who knew that the Bible had soap opera stuff like this?!

Rahab, the prostitute, after much talk exclaimed to the Israelite spies on the roof that it was obvious the Lord had given them the land and that the Lord had been doing great, miraculous things for the Israelites, like parting the Red Sea some 40 years earlier. Something seemed to be changing inside of Rahab. In exchange for her word that she wouldn't give away any information about the spies and their whereabouts, the spies promised Rahab safety in the destruction to come. They told her to hang a scarlet cord from her window so the troops would know which house to leave alone. If she wanted her family to be saved, they must be in the house as well.

Rahab undoubtedly hung that scarlet cord from her window. That was her and her family's only hope. The entire city, every inhabitant and every wall would fall, except for where that scarlet cord fluttered in the wind. What immense hope was resting on such a small piece of twine. A woman, a whore by no uncertain terms, placed all her faith in the promise of a second chance, a life past the death she deserved. Ultimately, when Rahab placed the scarlet cord in her window, she was acknowledging the power of the God the Israelites had been proclaiming. Finally when the dust settled, only one house remained. I bet you know which one it was.

If God can love Rahab, a harlot who had lived her life in sin and iniquity, enough to give her the opportunity to hang a scarlet twine outside her window as a second chance simply by having faith and proclaiming the truth of the God of Israel, then God can certainly love you enough. In all actuality, the scarlet cord is a precursor, representative of the blood of Jesus on the cross. Although the world will crumble and die, those who grip firmly to the power of the blood of Christ will not waiver. Not a speck of dust will come upon their salvation as the world crashes down. God has something better planned for them. He loves us so much that He gave His Son freely as a sacrifice to take the punishment that we deserve for our sins.

Have you placed the figurative scarlet cord in your window yet? Do you recognize that God is real, personal, and loves you more than you will ever deserve? He is a God of second chances. He is a God of hope. He is a God of love. His love is intertwined in your very being. The best thing you can do is love Him back while He's still blessing you with every breath you're breathing!

With love.