Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Christmas in Summer

“But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings.  And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture….”  Malachi 4:2

The other day I began whistling the Christmas carol, Hark the Herald Angels Sing.  Goodness, Lord, this Christmas carol in the summer? I fished around in my memory bank for the lyrics but could only get some of them. The inability to remember all the lyrics can drive me crazy when the tune is familiar and right there coming out of my mouth. So, I stopped, thought hard and asked God to let me know what the words were. This is one of God’s favorite ways to speak to me.  Why is it that at Christmas time all the words of a carol just flow from memory but if it is summer we can’t always remember the words? So I turned to the internet to check the lyrics. God must be trying to get some message across to me, I thought. Which words, Lord, do you want to remind me of? I asked.  I got to verse 3 which Charles Wesley penned in 1739:  “Hail the Son of Righteousness!  Light and Life to all he brings, Ris’n with healing in his wings….”  The words expressed come out of Malachi 4:2. I stopped everything to listen further to the Spirit.  Healing first. Freedom and joy are a result of healing not the other way around. You can’t expect a wounded person to feel free and leap with joy. Healing of wounds or injuries come first.  God was speaking and I was listening. I had observed a lack of joy and freedom in certain people and wondered what caused it. Then God revealed woundedness was the root problem and God wanted to rise with healing in his wings. Then there would be joy and freedom. 
To further confirm the words of the Spirit that same day our son, Jonny, who is a volunteer fireman, sent us some video clips of a serious car accident which he was summoned to. Stars, the ambulance helicopter, was sent to the rescue to carry away the injured to the hospital. It came down to the injured, hovered over them, propeller whirling, the ground rescuers assisted the injured onto the helicopter  and then it rose up to take the wounded off to the place of healing and life.  It was a graphic portrayal of both the Bible verse and Christmas carol.
Many instances of Jesus, rising up and coming to me with healing, were brought to my memory. It is like he just flies to the rescue of the wounded. There have always been God’s rescue people assisting but sometimes the 'Stars helicopter' needs to fly in. The ground rescuers are not enough. I have many Muslim friends who need the Sun of Righteousness to rise up and bring healing, freedom and joy to them because I can be there to help but they really need the ultimate Healer to take them under his wings.

P.S. No sooner had this been posted than I received a SOS phone call from a convert requesting urgent healing prayer for a Muslim classmate whom I don't know. The phone was passed to that lady and I prayed Jesus would go to her and heal her.
Dear heavenly Father, thank you for rising up and coming to us with healing in your wings. Please fly to some of my Muslim friends who are spiritually wounded and injured or traumatized.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.