Freed from barbed wire
I heard an intriguing story from one of our church members. My imagination instantly brought it to life.
A Christian sister recounted how she had been walking along a fence line when she came upon a sheep hopelessly ensnared by barbed wire. As she approached the pitiful creature and began assisting it, the ewe frantically thrashed, kicked and pulled in every direction.
The barb wire held fast as she worked to release the snagged sheep. Suddenly the violent movements of the sheep knocked her to the ground as the ewe lunged free to happily scamper off.
As she watched that sheep joyfully run free some thoughts entered her mind. “That sheep probably thinks it freed itself from the barbed wire. In fact, it will probably still be skittish of me in the future.”
As vivid as this story can be in our minds, what I found most insightful were her next thoughts. We can be just like that sheep. At times we might think our strength resolved our problems in spite of God’s graciousness. We too might scamper off ungrateful for what God has done.
Failure to recognize what God has done for us will certainly leave us ungrateful and ill prepared to worship. This is all the more true when it comes to our worst crisis. If we fail to appreciate the gravity of sin and our absolute hopelessness to free ourselves, we will be less prepared to praise God for Christ crucified for us.
I suspect that the more accurately we realize the horrific nature of all sin and the more we acknowledge our complete dependence on God to set us free, the more likely we are to love and to be prepared to fall down before him in worship.
We have every reason to gratefully worship this coming Lord’s day. Let’s join together to worship the one worthy of all praise, honor and glory.
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