Hope for the Worn and Weary

“And they were lovely because He loved them.”

-The Jesus Storybook Bible

Like many kids, each of my children has a special stuffed animal. You know the kind: dingy and worn from being dragged around everywhere for years. At one time, I considered replacing each one with a new, less ragged version. The kids would have been amazed to wake up to see their beloved friend “made new”! My husband, however, was against this idea, and I agreed it wasn’t very practical. Besides, there’s definitely value in something well-loved that something shiny and new can never match. 

This week, one of our daughters had the opportunity to go to the store and pick out any toy she wanted as a reward for meeting a big goal. She’d been striving for this for months and had been mulling over what toy she would choose. We were pretty sure she was going to go for either the Barbie pizza parlour, a pair of kids’ binoculars, or a container of lip balm shaped like a panda. None of us had any idea she would end up picking this lamb, which is identical to her little sister’s special “Lamby”. 

You can’t help noticing the difference when you see these two little sheep side by side, can you? I suspect most of us are feeling kind of like the well worn sheep right now.  Your hair may not be the color it once was, and you might be a little soft in the middle. You’ve been dragged to some places that beat you up a little or been bitten by something with sharp teeth. Your head might droop a bit from tiredness or discouragement, and understandably so. After all, you’ve been through a lot. 

But you, my friend- you are well-loved. You’re something special, a treasured possession worth driving a hundred miles to get back. That’s how God feels about you. Even though you and I were in a sorry state, God went to great lengths to get us back. But that’s not the end of the story.

Do you know what I think of when I look at these two stuffed lambs, side by side? Heaven, and the promise of renewal. God isn’t quite as practical of a parent as I am, and he’s got a marvelous, secret plan for his kids to wake up one day completely restored! Friends, we’re going to be the second lamb! Not replaced, but not just gussied up, either. You’ll be the same beloved person you’ve always been, but healed, strengthened, whole, and transformed!

The road down here feels long sometimes, and by all appearances it looks like things are just going to keep going downhill. Don’t be deceived by what you can see, though, and lose your hope. As people of God, we live for the hope we cannot see but know in our hearts is coming. When we tap into that, when we stay connected to Jesus as our source of hope and strength, we have access to a heaping portion of that promised renewal in our soul right now, in the midst of life’s struggles. Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven was coming, but also that it is already here. Through Christ, we are citizens of Heaven already, and God offers us his mighty strength today to live as regenerated Kingdom people, loved and sustained while we await the glorious fulfillment of our restoration.

This little sheep couldn’t be happier.

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”

-2 Corinthians 4:16

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

-Hebrews 11:1

“For while we are in this tent [of the body], we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.  Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”

-2 Corinthians 5:4-5