Alive

The quiet restaurant with high backed booths offered the perfect setting, the privacy we needed to get reacquainted.

My cousin and I couldn’t remember the last time we were together—well over 40 years ago.

We started with small talk learning about each other’s families. It morphed into what we’ve been doing, she a marriage and family counselor, me Navigator staff and basket lady. Cautiously we began to trust each other and our conversation dove deeper—beyond the whats to who we are. That’s when we made an amazing discovery.

Beyond our kinship, beyond being moms and grandmas, we were black sheep.

We both grew up near the Atlantic and both moved west—away from our families, away from Thanksgiving tables, away from summer days at the shore, and other traditions that claimed our family identity. So we began to believe we were the black sheep.

Really?  We laughed. 

“He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many, he took up the cause of all the black sheep.”                 Isaiah 53:12, The Message Bible

He, Jesus, took up my cause. On that awful Good Friday he went to the cross for my black sheep status, for my sin, for not believing who I really am.

"... they shall be white as snow ..." Isaiah 1:18

On Easter morning, glorious, victorious, resurrection. He is risen; He is risen indeed. We testify to that truth as we greet each other on Resurrection Sunday. Because of the cross, because of the resurrection I have a brand new identity.

And I need to remind myself of that every day! Romans 6:4 says, “just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” 

What for me does a new life walk look like? Whether Friday, or Sunday, or Tuesday, or Thursday, I review truth; I remember who I am. I am not a black sheep of my family (I was the only one who thought that) or of God’s family.  

*I am a beloved child of God.                                                                                                                                                                                                     *I am chosen and consecrated.                                                                                                                                                                                                                   *I am known and belong.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      *I am righteous and holy.                                                                                                                                                                                                 *I have purpose.                            

                                                                                                                                                                    *I live in an environment of grace.  

I must access these truths every day! Forgetting is easy.

“So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”                                   Romans 6:11, ESV (Italics mine)

Please click over to Mundane Faithfulness for another testimony of Jesus is Alive.