Definition of REND
transitive verb
1: to
remove from place by violence : wrest
2: to split or tear apart or in pieces by
violence
3: to tear (the hair or clothing) as a
sign of anger, grief, or despair
4a : to
lacerate mentally or emotionally b : to pierce with sound c : to
divide (as a nation) into contesting factions
Pasted
from <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rend>
There was the first
rending. As soon as Eve believed the lie
and ate the fruit, Heaven and Earth were rent in two. After the first rending, there was murder and
slavery, cheating and pride. Strangely
enough, God didn't walk away. He stuck
around and taught people about what life was like before the first rending,
when things were perfect. He gave them
laws to teach them, and a promise to give them hope. Someone would come that would set things
right. Some day, things would be like
they were in the beginning, before famine or war or infidelity.
A few thousand years
and a world of hurt later, this One came.
They thought the One bringing hope would come with an army or at least a
battle plan. Overthrowing the Roman Empire
is no task for the unprepared. They
thought perhaps he would be like Saul, a head taller than everyone else, and
good looking too. They were wrong. When the One bringing hope came, He said odd
things like only those who are like children will enter the Kingdom of God, and
one should pay taxes to Caesar, and to be first, get to
the end of the line. He taught on the
hillsides; He taught from boats. He
healed bodies, but He also healed hearts.
Then they killed
Him. That was odd too. He told them the truth, and they gave Him a
Roman execution. He said He was the Son
of God, the Messiah, the One bringing hope.
They had no reason to believe He was lying or crazy. Lying people give up lying when faced with a
Roman flogging. Crazy people can't heal leprosy. As He hung
suspended between two railroad tie-sized nails, He died. Down the road at the Temple, the curtain was
rent.
Now, this wasn't
just any old curtain hanging in a window of the Temple. This curtain separated the areas where
priests could go, and the place called the "Holy of Holies" that
could only be entered once a year by the High Priest. When Jesus, the One who brought hope, died,
that curtain was ripped from top to bottom physically, signifying that we no
longer needed a High Priest to make sacrifices for our sins. The One who brought hope gave Himself as a
sacrifice, once and for all.
A couple thousand
years later and we have libraries of literature written about the first
rending, the second rending, and everything between and since. God kept His promise. He always does. When we had done the unthinkable, broken the
relationship between God and people by eating the fruit, He made a way for us
to be together again. By rending that curtain, He was mending what had been broken. By coming to God
on the basis of what Jesus did, of that hope that He brought instead of our own
abilities, that relationship is knit together again. We still damage it sometimes. We say things that dishonor Him or treat
people like they don't matter. We spend
freely on ourselves and skimp when it comes to giving to others.
Jesus, rend our
hearts. Break them when they are
calloused against the evil we do to each other.
Break them when we think we can be god ourselves. Let our hearts not be in one piece if that
piece is like shiny tin- cheap, impenetrable, inflexible. Help us remember that hearts are never made
whole except by Your hand.
Little Miss Sunshine
Credits
One day I hope you'll publish an entire book of devotional writings.
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