Restored Relationships

There’s something so very sweet to me about reunion between friends that makes me think, “This must be what Jesus died for.”

Have you ever thought of the gospel as a story of restored relationships? To me, it has become one of the most tangible ways to understand the story of redemption. And I believe God understands his creation well enough to speak in a language that they can understand, and this just happens to be one of my particular languages.

I’m an extremely relationally-oriented person. This doesn’t mean I’m wildly active in the dating game (in fact, at the moment I’m very much not), but I’m constantly thinking, living, even praying in terms of my relationships with others, and ultimately my relationship with God. I’ve even come into the habit of calling Him “Daddy” when I cry to Him at any given moment throughout the day. I find that when I pray, I most frequently begin with the closest relationships that are on my mind, and move around the circle of those I love and feel compassion for—even those I don’t feel particularly close to in the moment. One of my favorite activities is to sit down with another person, one-on-one, and hear their story, and allow them to hear my own. When I worry, I most frequently worry about the displeasure I could bring to another person within the context of my relationship with them. But one of the healthiest ways that I personally dispel worry is by speaking my concerns to another trusted individual, and admittedly some of the most intense feelings of grief I experience in the reality of releasing a relationship to Jesus.

For myself, I understand the transformation and redemption of Christ in the lives of His children most easily just by taking a look at the journey that I’ve been on with those that are dearest to my heart. In fact, my most treasured relationships are those that, if not for the grace of God, shouldn’t still stand a chance in the world today. It’s from some of the most trying relationships with people that I’ve come to understand the grace that God has for us the most clearly. I know that in the relationships where the other individual has seen me at some of my darkest moments, and I them, become my most trusted. Patience, loyalty, and trust have undergone great tests in the furnace of these relationships, and sometimes we've been burned. Quite possibly, many times. But even deeper scars can lead to deeper healing—only but one miracle that I know God is capable of in our lives, from the deepest of wounds.

My own journey with others is but one way—one reflection—I know of that further confirms to me that God has created man in His image for relationship and that this is the heart of the gospel message.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…and He created man in His image (see the creation story in Genesis 1). Just as He did not wish for man to be alone, and has so surrounded us with relationships within which to exercise our knowledge and understanding of Him, God did not wish that we be separated from Him for eternity because of our failure to pledge Him our complete and unfailing loyalty. So He sent Jesus. Jesus experienced the full wrath of the furnace, the place in relationships where sometimes you get burned, and came back, so that the relationship between God and man could be restored. So that all relationships granted us by God could be restored in the same way, by His grace alone.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” –John 15:9-13 (NIV)