Redemption. It might be my favorite word. Redemption means the recovery of something. It means to buy something back. It means to rescue. When I hear the word redemption, I picture something sad becoming something beautiful. I see pain in the end being the most brilliant colors in a painting or the sweetest notes in a song. A story whose ending is moving and powerful and triumphant because of the hardship that came before. Movies or stories or personal accounts that have that theme of redemption make my heart sing.
Redemption is one of the reasons the Christian story resonates so deeply for me. There are a lot of intense stories in the bible, written from ancient times by ancient people in ancient cultures. But despite the variety of authors from a variety of ages, in every account you can see this thread running, sounding a deep and harmonic note - redemption. The entire bible is a story of redemption. Smaller stories that run into bigger stories that set the stage for the biggest story of all. The story of how God joined us in our flesh and brokenness and suffered for us to redeem us from our darkness. And the hum of redemption flows from the past, exploding at the cross into song, vibrating still in hearts and souls as a promise.
Pain, sickness, evil, and death are not the last word. The sadness and the suffering will be redeemed. The ugly will become beautiful and the broken will be mended. Look for this theme of redemption in the movies you watch and the books you read. And when you find it know that you are hearing an echo. An echo of the promise. May it resonate.
Redemption is one of the reasons the Christian story resonates so deeply for me. There are a lot of intense stories in the bible, written from ancient times by ancient people in ancient cultures. But despite the variety of authors from a variety of ages, in every account you can see this thread running, sounding a deep and harmonic note - redemption. The entire bible is a story of redemption. Smaller stories that run into bigger stories that set the stage for the biggest story of all. The story of how God joined us in our flesh and brokenness and suffered for us to redeem us from our darkness. And the hum of redemption flows from the past, exploding at the cross into song, vibrating still in hearts and souls as a promise.
Pain, sickness, evil, and death are not the last word. The sadness and the suffering will be redeemed. The ugly will become beautiful and the broken will be mended. Look for this theme of redemption in the movies you watch and the books you read. And when you find it know that you are hearing an echo. An echo of the promise. May it resonate.
