You are being held down by a force so much greater than yourself. You wiggle, you squirm, you frantically use up every ounce of energy existing in your muscles from your teeth to your toes trying to break free from the grip of someone restraining your progress. Your struggle has afforded you zero momentum. You are no closer to escape than when you began. What's worse, you notice only a thumb is holding you down like a tac. A mere fingerprint, using no force or fret, but applying a minor amount of subdued pressure to your position somehow keeping you from moving.
Like jello molding to a cold glass bowl, you surrender your spot slowly to a new, inevitable shape. Little did you know, your melting, exhausted bones are re-shaping into a more fitting posture. It's as if you were squeezing into the wrong size shoes your whole life. Now your eyes are not the only things opening, but your feet wiggle with pleasure-- the comfort relaxes your whole body. Why were you resisting? Why hadn't you known that the force was meant for good, for a right-standing walk?
As a parent holds back a fighting child from hurting himself, your protector pushed you down to keep you from running into oncoming traffic, and the thumbprint of God hurts. Eventually it lets up and reveals a new set of shoes--shoes that fit you properly. God holds you down out of jealousy for you. He hand-crafted your footwear, which you've neglected, and He is unwilling to erase your intended size. Yet, He only pushes on one part of your attire at a time. Once your shoes fit, He will let you run, play, and enjoy every new sensation. Later, when your respite and running have lost their luster, He'll hold you down again until you trust Him to put on a new pair of socks.
When we are God's children, when we are new creatures in Christ, He wants us to put on new clothes to match our new identities. But when others don't recognize us, we tend to return to our former garb, slipping on one old item from our wardrobe at a time. Still, once we know our personal designer's voice, there's no losing our new look. He loves us too much to let us return to an ill-fitting outfit.
God will lovingly place His thumb on us until we give up completely. Sanctification hurts, but when God grabs a hold of us He never let's go. That is the assurance of our salvation and that pain has purpose for the believer. The hard pressure reveals something eternally better in us. After some time, we won't want to return to our old closet, and we won't squirm when we feel His loving hand pressing firmly. We will recognize His thumbprint, just like we do His voice. That's when we remain undisturbed by life's disturbances because our feet don't hurt anymore. Our comfort is eternal.
When something new hurts pray and ask for aid--let the thumbprint calm you. Don't fight it, but trust that your getting some new clothes today. He will always provide it...
~Carefully Careless
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