I have a toddler and let me just say, some days are much better than others. There are days where life is full of snuggles and cute faces, and days when life is full of tantrums and screaming. Yes, please pray for me.
But something God showed me this week is how much we are all like that toddler kicking and screaming. Wanting to hold onto the sin in our life because we think it’s what is best for us. It takes the love of a parent to step in and change our trajectory. It takes a holy, magnificent God to stop seeing the actions, and start seeing the soul underneath. To step in and SAVE.
All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.
Ephesians 2:3
God did something only a truly loving parent could do. He saved us despite our past, despite His disappointment, and despite the fact that He KNEW we would continue to struggle with our sins. Because of His belief in us, we were given a second chance at true salvation and through it, a new family meant to build each other up instead of break each other down.
He turned us from toddlers throwing fits to get our way or hurting others because we didn’t know how to communicate, to children of God. Woman who step-in, take action, and choose to flourish together because we all have the same backstory and the same Spirit living within us, guiding us in this beautiful relationship with our one true creator.
And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit
Ephesians 2:22
His Spirit unites us just like it did the Jews and the Gentiles. It surrounds us, protects us, and pushes us to be the women God has called us to be. Factions don’t matter in the kingdom of God, not age, income, or situation. What matters is that we are joined together and here for one another, putting away old hostilities and boundaries.
Ephesians 2:14-16
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.
God has some incredible work to be done through His people. We were all meant to flourish together, so how can you help another person flourish today?
Heather is a contributing writer for Shaken & Stirred. She is a believer, a wife, and a mother to a wonderful (and sometimes crazy) one-year-old. She enjoys reading, playing video games, and listening to podcasts. She can usually be taking care of the home and playing on the floor with her daughter.
Photo by Caroline Hernandez on Unsplash