Inside Out

Matthew 23:27b You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean.

As we waited, the compassionate doctor rewarded my companions, 5 and 4, with stickers.  "Look, Mommy, my stickers are a pencil, an apple and a Bible."  I smiled.  A quick glance confirmed my suspicions.  Clara's "Bible" was just an ordinary book. 

Later we sat at the pharmacy surrounded by canes and pill bottles.  The canes became crutches; the pill bottles maracas.  Several passersby snickered at my "elderly" preschoolers who hunched over their crutches, sang "I can't walk", and danced to a background beat played on their medicine drums.

Today I am reading Mark 5.  Jesus and His companions have traveled to the region of Gerasenes.  Here they encounter a violent, unkempt man whose resided in a cemetery.  Jesus smelled him before He saw him - his repulsive odor a mixture of filth and blood.

Just the image in my mind causes my to recoil.  Jesus, however, is not dissuaded.  He approaches the tomb dweller without hesitation, eyes the demons within and commands them to go elsewhere.  The result is a clean man with his sanity restored.

This morning I saw a book, a cane and a medicine bottle.  My children saw the same objects not for what they were, but what they could be.  I saw a symbol of debilitation, my children beheld a toy.  I viewed rows of medicines, they envisioned musical instruments.  I pictured an ordinary book, they spied The Book. 

When Jesus looks at us, He contemplates not what we are but what we can be:

• Restored (The Cane) - Our lives are broken. Without Christ, we limp along a path that leads to destruction. Jesus sees a future filled with the joy of walking braced by His strength, not our own.
• Healed (The Medicine) - Our hearts are sick. We need Christ to transform them with the music of His grace.
• Connected (The Book) - Our souls are lonely. We need the fellowship of the Living Word living in us and with us.

Jesus, too often I'm a whitewashed tomb dweller. I look presentable on the outside but inside I'm falling apart. When I allow You to walk about in my heart, I come out restored, healed, connected. Today, I'll allow You to change me from the inside out.