Redemption Requires a Reason

     Imagine you're swimming leisurely in a lake, enjoying the sun, and a gentle breeze, all is right with the world, and you are relaxing to the quiet sounds of water lapping the shore and birds in the trees nearby, when suddenly someone is swimming toward you, grabs you by the hair, yanks you struggling and sputtering to shore, flops you onto the bank and declares: "There--you're safe now! You've been rescued." How would you feel? Astonished? Offended? Infuriated? Maybe even violent, but certainly not rescued. You would have no appreciation for your rescuer either, and in reality, no one would come along to do that because it was not necessary.

     But what if the conditions were different?

     This time imagine that night has fallen quickly and caught you off guard, you've used up your strength swimming out to the center of the lake, you are alone and now you're much further from shore than you realized. In the darkness, a thunderstorm starts to whip up around you, rain begins coming down in sheets while the wind blows savagely, sending wave after wave against your face as you struggle just to stay on the surface. You have completely lost your direction and you realize that you cannot survive this. Now a replay: suddenly someone is swimming toward you, grabs you by the hair, yanks you struggling and sputtering to shore, flops you onto the bank and declares: "There--you're safe now! You've been rescued." Now how would you feel? Astonished? Relieved? Grateful? Maybe even rescued? In this scenario you will honor and appreciate the one who pulled you from the water.

     Redemption is a church word for being rescued or saved. It is used both in the sense of salvation from eternal judgement and rescue from peril. It is a word rarely used in our comfortable culture. But in truth, we are usually much further from the safety of shore than we imagine either through sin or circumstances. It often takes the violent storms of life, exhaustion from going too far on our own, overwhelming conditions we can't control, or sometimes the cold fear of death before we recognize our helplessness and our need to be saved.

     I have been thinking about this lately from a parent's perspective, though not because of anything in our immediate family. I think that redemption in the Christian home is painful. Good parents love their children and pray that they will realize their need for Christ and live accordingly, growing in respect to salvation by relying on Him and recognizing their need. And yet parents will often do everything in their power to keep their child 'safe' from the very circumstances God would use to make them aware of their desperate state. It is counter productive. Should those circumstances wreak havoc with the child's self-righteous-esteem or rock their otherwise ambivalent outlook, then parents tend to mourn and wring their hands for what seems lost and what may come. But what seems lost is just an outward appearance and God judges the heart anyway. If we are worried about what others think then that is a sin in itself that we need to address before even considering where our children are at. As to 'what may come', it could not be worse if salvation is not certain.

     I am convinced, as one who was there in my own younger life, that sometimes the one who is furthest from shore is nearest to being rescued because they have the greatest chance of seeing their need. And I am always amazed at how far the Lord is willing to let a person swim from shore so that they will realize how truly needy they are.

     Have you been shown mercy? Then you must have deserved something terrible. Have you felt the Lord's comfort and nearness? Then you must, at some point, have been very broken. Have you tasted the goodness of God? How would you have known it's sweetness without a bitter badness to compare it to? Redemption requires a reason. A person saved from nothing has not been saved, and a person saved from very little treasures their salvation very little.

     Redemption will never be valued where it's need has not been desperately felt. Unfortunately a parent can't escape feeling it together with their child, especially as they grow up. It is ours to bear. I imagine that even as our Heavenly Father allows us to swim further and further away from shore, He longs to scoop us up and save us the pain. Fortunately He knows exactly what is needed and is willing to wait until we, or our children, know what is needed, too.