Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Cups and Hearts

Matthew 23:25-28

We were talking last night and the above passage came to mind.

Jesus gives an indictment to the religious leaders. He says that polishing the image...saving face...looking the part of being righteous isn't going to cut it. You can look clean on the outside, but if you're messed up on the inside, it's no good.

Jesus is talking about sin, shame and darkness here. There's no room for hypocrites.

But as with many things these days, my mind turns to Chaia.

She looks great this week. She is pink. She is smiley. She is bright eyed. She is building her neck muscles up. She wiggles like crazy. She coos. And, at least right after her bath, she doesn't smell bad.

But that's the outside of the cup. On the inside Chaia is still very sick. I know there have been lots of positive reports which has been amazing and miraculous. Crushing R2D2, Weaning well and moving to the end of the hall are fantastic things. But, its still not a great prognosis.

Her heart is damaged. Her breathing remains rapid. There is uncertainty to whether she will live apart from meds and pain killers and oxygen. Even if she gets out of the hospital, the next set of questions are whether a growth spurt of an inch here or a pound there will cause her to go into heart failure again. Then there is the disease itself. Will the pamidronate eliminate the calcifications? If not, then her heart, kidneys, liver, brain...they are all in danger of being compromised.

I share all this not to be a debbie downer, but to be honest that there are still very significant risks and unknowns in this journey. While we love the outside of the cup being clean...enjoying laughter together and having a high functioning baby compared to many of the other heart failure patients in the ICU, we are very aware that this can turn on a dime in a moment and the inside of her cup will reveal itself.

And as has been so often the case, Chaia's story is our story.

Whatever you and I let fester in the secret places of our heart. Whatever wickedness, shame, brokeness and sin that we have. It will eventually rear its ugly head. The inside of our cups will always reveal itself on the outside.

And both for Chaia and for us...the work of Jesus to miraculously change us from the inside out is our only hope.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

amen.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ eph. 2:4-5
(by grace you have been saved )

"You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away" james 4:14

WE hope and boast only in Him

Anonymous said...

Anyone who is among the living has hope... Ecclesiastes 9:4 NIV

Christ, the hope of glory, full of grace, changes us FROM the inside out.

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure if you've read this before or not. It's a devotional that Max Lucado wrote on hope. http://www.maxlucado.com/static/email_archive/2011/02.24.html
We hope and trust in the Lord.
Becky Gross

Anonymous said...

Our prayer is to change Chaia from the inside out. Praise God.