Healing a Breach in Our Lives
Is there any one among us who has not lived through some kind of a breakup? A friendship? A marriage? A family? A partnership? These breakups of important relationships can be very painful. They can leave gaping voids in our lives. Can they be healed?
For many of us, there exist broken relationships that we may yearn earnestly to fix, but, alas, they never seem to be mended. Left undone, they become the sad "irreconcilable differences" of our lives. On a larger scale, broken relationships can have a dire consequence. Frustrated or betrayed relationships collectively produce a chronicle of human experience that becomes a profound story of conflict. Left unchecked, this unsavory story can bring us literally to the brink of destruction. While there are many examples of this, the current unresolved situation in the Middle East is but one illustration of the human race dividing and becoming further and further estranged from within.
Is there hope of reconciliation in conflicts large or small? When it seems like nothing will ever change, can God bring us back together?
The answer, happily, is a resounding yes!
In my last column I wrote about the biblical Festival of Trumpets (observed this year on Sept. 5). If you did not see the last column, allow me to note again that this festival celebrates in advance the return of Jesus Christ and the miraculous resurrection of the dead. The powerful biblical symbolism cited in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 briefly tells the story:
"Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (emphasis added throughout).
These ancient biblical Holy Days, which Jesus Christ and the original apostles observed as an example for us, portray a wonderful future for humanity! Ten days after the Festival of Trumpets there is another biblical festival to be observed (this year on Sept. 14) that is called the Day of Atonement (some refer to it as Yom Kippur). It commemorates "at-one-ment" with God, which is a holy reconciliation—a healing of a gaping spiritual void—between humanity and God. It is living personal prophecy for you and me—it pictures a global spiritual healing, a mass turning of mankind to a loving God. The apostle Paul describes this in Ephesians 2:13-21:
"But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation…thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross…For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father."
I invite you to consider this critical biblical fact: There cannot be real peace until there is a true reconciliation of man to God. That will happen in the future, and it is happening right now! That wonderful spiritual reconciliation is miraculously occurring in the lives of many as they come to know the awesome power of making ourselves right with God. Once we have developed a powerful and reconciled relationship with God Almighty, then we can also heal broken human relationships and be reconciled personally here today!
Real reconciliation is sweet. If you've ever been able to forgive and be forgiven, it is truly a liberating experience. And I submit this to you: In order for this bitter world to have a chance of survival, forgiveness and reconciliation must be taught and practiced. Thankfully, it will be.
Jesus Christ repaired the breach between God and man through His selfless sacrifice for us. But that's only part of the story. I invite you to read the rest of the story for yourself from our Bible study aid God's Holy Day Plan: A Promise of Hope for Mankind. You can download it right here.
I love this biblical truth, and I would welcome your thoughts as you read more of it for yourself in your own Bible.
PS—My wife Beverly and I will shortly be traveling to Africa, where we will keep the biblical capstone of God's Holy Day season: the Feast of Tabernacles, which pictures the coming Kingdom of God. The United Church of God will be keeping this festival at many sites across the globe. Accordingly, the next column will be at the beginning of October. Until then, may God continue to bless your efforts to learn more about Him! (Ephesians 1:17-19)
