The Fifth Bird
We all have a past. Some are good stories to be told, some are rather left unspoken. But regardless, it is the past that could either be a tremendous positive drive force or one exactly the opposite. For a lot of people I know including myself, it is the latter. My blog prior to this was entitled "Beauty & The Mess" and you needed not to read its contents to determine what it was all about. By the name itself you'd know. It was a collection of art portraying a broken soul. It was me at my worst.
If there is one thing I came to know about pain, it is that pain consumes. It is an element which may overpower goodwill, the desire to do right. It drains you from all that which defines yourself and leaves you without an identity -- you become lost within the monsters of your own. You are led to more bad choices and intentional mistakes out of despair, and just like archives left untouched in an abandoned room, your past will keep piling up of more records one after another.. And the dusts that covered its pages dances in a loop.. That whenever by chance or choice you step into change, it still lingers around in the atmosphere. It rages in the air with a whisper: "you are a sinner, you are a sinner, you are a sinner, you are...sinner".
Unlike the sinners, blessed they say is a man with an untainted history, he is seen of no fault and the world has nothing to verdict against him. He knows no accusations nor insults nor persecutions nor mourning when the sun sets. The world adores him. But oh praise be to heavens the Scripture says otherwise! It says:
"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth."
-Matthew 5: 3-5
I knew what it's like to have a spirit waning in rags. I remembered how it secretly clamored for a moment of redemption and how it rejoiced when it has found it's Savior. I knew I was not righteous and I can never be. I dreaded myself with shame and guilt and regrets in affirmation of how the world condemns me to be; I was a wreck stripped out of dignity, stolen out of hope, bathed in judgement. For the world sees the superficial. It sees what you did instead of what you've been through. It sees your smiles and boisterous laughters but not the void in your heart. For there is only One who sees your heart as the scripture says, "..you are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts.. (Luke 16:15). Now if He sees, then He knows, He justifies, He identifies true repentance, and just He promised...
Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.
-Psalm 23:1-2
One of the best comforts in finding faith is having to be free from the chains of what has already passed. It is the the security of knowing that our identity is not anymore as dictated by the world but that our identity is already in Christ Jesus-- instead of a sinner, a child of God, born again by the grace of the Father. He alone wipes our impurities and He is faithful in keeping us as His beloved. Just as the Scripture says:
"Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool."
-Isiah 1:18
Noah was a drunkard
Jacob was a liar
Samson was a womanizer
Rahab was a prostitute
Joseph was abused
Mary Magdalene was wasted
Job went bankrupt
David had an affair
Abigail was brokenhearted
Paul was a murderer
We could choose to be one of those birds on the lanes who stays on one spot and endlessly watches everything pass by before him.Or we could choose to be the fifth bird who finally spreads out his wings to fly in a holistic freedom granted by renewal and restoration, ensured by the Truth that our past does not define us -- Christ does.
"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him." -John 3:17
Note: All bible reference are sited from the New International Version
(Image-1 Source: Rick Duncan)
(Image-2 Source: Ms. Amanda)
(Image-3 Source: Vashti Magazine)
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