Walked Among Us

"But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was on him,

    and by his wounds we are healed."

-Isaiah 53:5 (NIV)

How powerful are these words?

As I read these words earlier today, I was overcome with a feeling of understanding of this passage that I have read so many times that I have never felt before. During this season of Lent, I have spent a lot of time reflecting on Jesus and His death and resurrection.

As someone who has both sinned and been sinned against in awful ways, it is so powerful to think that a man, God in flesh, died so that I could be forgiven. That all of us could be forgiven.  I often struggled with this idea when I was in college learning about science and engineering.

I often thought to myself, How could one man die for all of our sins, every single person on earth, in the past, in the present and in the future? How is that physically possible? How can I mentally wrap my head around that?

Through my doubts and questions about this most important concept in Christianity, I have come to believe that we are not actually meant to fully understand it. God is not to be fully understood in this lifetime.

As it says in 2 Corinthians 5:7, "We walk by faith, not by sight."

Faith is something intangible and so is forgiveness. We surely can see forgiveness played out in our lives and the lives of those around us, but forgiveness in itself is intangible.

And what I do know is that forgiveness for our sins as well as those of the people around us is a very powerful thing.

After eating lunch with my mom earlier today, she and I sat and we started discussing a book that I had finished reading last week that she had just started reading. The conversation became very serious but it was one of the most healing conversations we have ever had. I asked some really difficult questions that I have held in my heart, mind and soul for so long. She knows that I still carry some anger towards her and in my own way, I am slowly coming to terms with the obstacles I have faced. I also am finding that God is using every opportunity to help me forgive those who have hurt me as well as forgive myself. As we spoke and then prayed, I felt like a huge weight came off my shoulders. My mom and I cried with each other. But this was different. The tears were not of pain as much as they were tears of relief. I will never fully understand my childhood and all the challenges I faced as I grew up and still struggle with today.

There are so many questions that flow through our minds all the time that most likely will not get answered during our lifetime. However, we have the opportunity to believe that we are forgiven and that God can help us to forgive those who have hurt us deeply. He can also help us forgive ourselves.

I often find that it is more challenging to forgive myself than to forgive others. It's easier for me to make excuses for others than myself. The truth is that we all are forgiven by God and He yearns to show His grace and mercy in our lives.

No matter what sins you have committed or what sins were committed against you, I hope that you realize the power in the words above. Jesus came to live among us, to fully understand our temptations to sin, and to be crushed, mocked, beaten, abused, laughed at, and ultimately killed so that we would know that he understands our struggles.

It is so powerful to have a God who is so close to us, not just some man in the sky. God is so much more than that. He is both distant and near. It is so powerful to have a God who relates to us on so many levels. He could have come down to earth and lived a perfect life and died a natural death.

But He didn't.

He walked among us and He walks with us each day. He is within us through the Holy Spirit. He is all around us. He is in the people around us.

We all have pain. We all have struggles. It does not matter who or what you believe in. We all have obstacles that we have to deal with and overcome during our lifetime.

I forget where I saw this but I recently read that there is absolutely nothing that we are faced with in this world that Jesus did not go through or that He cannot relate to. That, to me, is so powerful. So wonderful. So amazing. We serve a real, authentic and genuine God. 

Personally, it feels so good to know that God truly and deeply knows what I am going through. He is all-powerful and all-knowing, yet He cares about us so much that He hurts deeply for us when we are in pain. God did not just create human beings. He knows what it is like to be a human being.

Through the struggles and obstacles you face, I hope that you never forget that no matter how alone you feel, we are never alone in the fight.

I want to end this post with a song that I listened to hundreds of times as a teenager when I felt alone when I was being neglected. The words of this song are so powerful and I pray and hope you are as blessed as I have been by this song.