Pink Sweatsuits

"For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven."
Matthew 16:17b

One sentence from our Lord can tell us so much, can't it? Peter calls Jesus the Christ. Why? Because of the miracles he'd seen? Because of the way Jesus blessed and loved little children? Because of the truth of the indictments He raised against the corrupt Pharisees? Because of the healings and compassion He'd shown to lepers and Samaritans...and gentiles?

No.

Peter calls Jesus "the Christ" because His Father in heaven has been gracious. Kind. Merciful. Loving.

This morning I heard a knock on my office door. I turned around to see a middle-aged woman in a pink sweatsuit standing outside my office. I opened the door. She immediately asked to use my phone.

For 15 minutes this woman called and hung up and recalled her estranged husband. The details of the conversation I heard were sketchy on my end. But what I could see and indeed empathize with was the brokenness. The hurt. The confusion. The bitterness. The...lostness of this situation.

She had no where to go. Kicked out of the shelter and the home she had lived in. Desperate to make amends in what seemed like a dysfunctional relationship.

Her life could have been my life. Am I special for being married and happy and fully satisfied (at least most of the time!) with my life? No.

I'm as broken and hurt and often confused and occasionally bitter too as the woman I spoke with this morning. But I'm no longer lost. I've been found by the good Shepherd.

Why did God save me? Because He is God and He loves me. Thank you Father for finding me! For saving me. For revealing through your gracious lovingkindness that Jesus is the Christ.