Free Indeed!

"So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36

This morning as I was sitting on the patio a song came on that took me back 10 years as I sat beside my sister's hospice bed near the end of her life. I had brought my laptop to help my family identify songs for her celebration of life service that would soon come to pass. I was looking at how peaceful she was as she was certainly already looking to another world. Her eyes were closed to this one, but they were open to a world I could not see. Sometimes a smile would cross her face while other times her eyebrows would be so raised, I was trying to imagine what she was seeing. Her body was imprisoned but her spirit was free. And suddenly, ‘I Am Free’ by the Newboys came on. As I listened to the words, I was overwhelmed that in the next day or two her broken physical body would be traded in for her beautifully healed spiritual body. And man, was she getting ready to be free… free to run…free to dance…free to live for God! She loved sunflowers and I could picture that healed little girl running and spinning through a sunflower garden on the other side of the clouds.

We don’t have to be at the end of lives to experience that freedom. Christ was bound for us in the most horrendous way to give us freedom in the here and now. In Christ, we can have freedom from our loneliness…freedom from our fears…freedom in our belief…freedom in every circumstance. The Son HAS set us free so whatever we place in His hands He will place peace and hope in our hands.

What circumstances do you feel are holding you captive this morning? For the mother who sees her child walking out a prodigal season…in Christ there is freedom from worry. For the patient who has been given bad news…in Christ there is freedom in healing. For the couple who feels trapped in their marriage…in Christ there is freedom in reconciliation. We were meant to be 'free to run' here on earth...we were meant to 'partner in dance' with God in this world. All freedom comes in Christ before the resolution of the circumstances come. The empty cross is the miracle of Christ. Reach out and take hold of the freedom that is yours and let God take hold of you!