Guest Writing for She Reads Truth
Honored to be invited to guest write for She Reads Truth. This women’s daily Bible devotion is read by an estimated 300,000 women around the world. The premise is simple: women in the Word everyday. The photography is lovely and the team is fun and down to earth. They have a terrific phone app and all sorts of beautiful art. The timing for this first post came as the situation in Baltimore regarding the death of Freddy Gray escalated. I pray God will continue to use my words whether spoken or written to point people to Truth and help restore perspective. I’ve included the first part of the post below or you can read the complete post by clicking this link: http://shereadstruth.com/2015/04/29/honor-the-image-bearers/
Honor Image Bearers
My arms ached from carrying his newly walking little brother. The 15-hour time change between California and Hong Kong meant waking while it was still dark and a predictable afternoon crash. With only one short week to spend visiting my parents, we determined to squeeze in all we could. The rocking motion from the ferry ride across the Hong Kong harbor put my younger son to sleep, but my preschool aged son knelt on the wooden bench. He strained his neck in order to peer out the window as the ferry carried our family across the dark green colored water. Jonathan watched, eyes barely blinking, as new sights, sounds, smells and an unfamiliar language filled his naturally inquisitive mind.
The long walkway brimmed with people as we exited the ferry. Jonathan skipped along ahead and then I watched as he slowed down, almost to a stop, and tried to make sense of what he saw. A man with no legs, no teeth, matted hair, covered in soot and sores, sat on a flattened cardboard box, begging. A few coins clanked against the metal canister he tapped on the cement. Scores of people hurried by him acting as if he was invisible. I watched Jonathan tilt his head; his young mind had no category for people living in such poverty.
I transferred my sleeping son into my husband’s arms as a quote from the Mystery of Marriageby Mike Mason came to mind:
“If man really is fashioned, more than anything else, in the image of God, then clearly it follows that there is nothing on earth so near to God as a human being. The conclusion is inescapable, that to be in the presence of even the meanest, lowest, most repulsive specimen of humanity in the world is still to be closer to God than when looking up into a starry sky or at a beautiful sunset.”
Taking Jonathan’s hand, I pulled him over to the side. Once we moved out of the center of the steady stream of people, I knelt down so we could look straight into each other’s eyes.
You can finish reading the post here:
P. S. My next post comes out tomorrow for the Fruit of the Spirit series!
P.P.S. Here’s a link to one of the IF:Equip bible studies Jamie Ivey and I taught on 1 Peter. Click here