Healing Wings

Every sin causes damage. Sin interferes with our ability to be transformed into the likeness of Jesus. When we accepted Jesus we became new creations. The ultimate goal of being a new creature is to look more and more like Jesus every day. When we sin we look less like Jesus because he never sinned. Sin destroys just like a disease destoys our body. I have had diabetes for 50 years, and now after all the years of taking insulin I can teally feel the damage it has done to my body. There is no cure for diabetes, but there is a cure for the sin that destroys and impedes our progression to become more like Jesus. Malachi 4:2 says, ” But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves released from their stall.”

When I was a boy our house  was heated by a coal furnace. It provided adequate heat, but it was very messy. One thing I remember about coal is how it smelled. It was not a pleasant odor, but we got used to it over the course of the long winter. How refreshing it was when warm weather came and we didn’t need to heat the house. Since we didn’t  have air conditioning all the windows in the house were raised, and a fresh breeze would flow throughout every nook and cranny. The aroma of spring flowers and the blossoms on the trees overcame the stale odor of that coal furnace.  We could not see or feel those aromas, but we experienced the freshness that the breeze brought.

This analogy falls way short of describing the in dwelling of the Holy Spirit, but I hope it opens our eyes to the difference he makes in our lives as we try to achieve the goal of becoming more like Jesus. The more we depend on tne Holy Spirit the less likely we will be to sin. We will receive the power to live in the love of Jesus, therefore, becoming more and more like him. We will not achieve perfection. There will be times when sin will retard our spiritual progress, but the healing wings of the Holy Spirit will bring restoration.  And, of course, we will frolic all over the place just like a well-fed calf! Well maybe no that, but the image of some of us doing that makes me laugh.