“Have no fear, for I have redeemed you”

Well, we are here again at the start of another New Year. I hope you have had a
Happy Christmas and I wish you all a good New Year. Over the festive period I
watched a TV programme about Rikki Fulton, the Scottish comedian and actor who
portrayed the fictional Kirk Minister, Rev. I. M. Jolly.
Many was the Hogmanay evening that I watched “Scotch and Wry”. Rev. I.M. Jolly
often in the Hogmanay special reflects upon the fading year and anticipates the
coming year. This was always delivered in a deadpan fashion with a tongue lodged
firmly in his cheek.
At the beginning of this year, I have found myself reflecting on the past year, and
wondering what this year will hold for us as a people of faith? What pictures
spring to my mind when I think of the relationship we enjoy with God? How can we
deepen and strengthen that relationship? Sometimes the picture of our lives as
experienced in reality and how they are portrayed afterwards are not always
clearly mirrored. How do we understand and deepen those pictures within the
framework of our relationship with God? What do we picture our life’s story with
God to be like?
Amy Carmichael reflecting on her experiences of living a life of faith pictures a
story of the Prodigal Son returning to his Father, ‘The thoughts of the son went
like this:” My hopes painted beautiful pictures, but they are fading one by one.” His
Father said:” Destroy all those pictures. To watch them slowly fading is weakening
to the soul. Dare then to destroy them. You can if you will. I will give you other
pictures instead of those your hopes painted.” ‘
In this New Year it occurs to me that God doesn’t see us the way we do either; we
look all the while into a distorted mirror that distorts some features and makes
other disappear. God sees a true picture of us with all our faults and limitations,
but more than this He sees a picture of all the possibilities and potential we hold.
“Just let Me get my hands on this one,” He thinks, “and then just wait and see
what the finished picture will be.”
Sometimes God gives us glimpses of a picture to encourage us and spur us on. For
us it can be a long process, but in the end it is all about becoming God’s picture of
us. Picture that. Picture this. The prophet Isaiah (43:1, 7) pictures it quite
eloquently, in his words,
“Have no fear, for I have redeemed you;
I call you by name; you are mine…
You are more precious to me…”