Love 2: Hosea

Prior to this blog I posted a blog with a story in it that shows us something of the love of God. (It is called 'Love 1: Brandy' if you haven't read that one yet please start there as this blog moves from the position in Love 1 to a second example of God's love.)

Have you heard the story in the Bible of the prophet Hosea? It is one of the craziest stories in there in terms of a relationship story. Hosea is called by the Lord to be His prophet, but, in the strangest of ways. God says to him:

“When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD.” So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.” (Hosea 1:2-3 ESV).

That is the second and third verse of the book. God says to him go and take a prostitute as your wife; which Hosea does. She bears him three children, all of whom God gives names I would not like to give my child, culminating in the third child, second son, whom God said to name ‘You are not My People’. Hosea and his wife are happy for a little while, but then she goes back to her old life as a prostitute. Imagine how devastating that would have been for Hosea? He was told by God to marry this woman, whom, in his day should have been stoned. Perhaps at first he didn’t love her but then he did. He loved her and they had three children together (though the Bible only specifically says one of the kids is his). He might have felt as if, in marrying her, he rescued her from a life of pain and sin and gave her a hope and a future. Then, as if he was nothing, she ran back to her old life and became not only a prostitute but also an adulterer.

I wonder if I was in that situation what would I do? Would I question God for making me marry a woman who turned out to be unfaithful? Would I question God’s ability to choose, that which is good for me? Hosea seems to be a little used in this story.

The thing God does next is even more shocking though. He tells Hosea to go and buy her back. So Hosea sets off, finds his wife and the man she is now with/she is now working for, and pays him 15 shekels of silver (lots of monies) and buys back his own wife. I imagine he was overjoyed to have her back but imagine having to go buy your wife out of sexual slavery? What a horrible thing to have to do. God had a point to all this pain and misery though and we will look at that after a couple of questions.

Questions:

1.     What does this story teach us about the love of God?

2.     What does this story teach us about us, and how we respond to God?

3.     What does this story teach us about loving others?

   There was a point to the story of Hosea’s personal life. God was showing, in a picture of a relationship, the relationship He has with His people. The Israelites often turned away from God and towards other gods and the picture is that they did it before He became their God, so He bought them out of prostitution to God’s marriage, in which “I will be your God and you will be my people.” (see Exodus 6:7, Leviticus 26:12, and Jeremiah 30:22 among others). Following from this Israel turns away from God again and goes back to the old ways of worshipping whatever God they please. But, just like Hosea bought back Gomer, God bought back His people by the death of Christ on the cross. Hosea showed his love in going and buying his wife out of her sinful life. Jesus did the same:      “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8 ESV)

Reasons Buffy is Shpiffing (RBiS) 1 The very first scene.

This is the first in a new series of blogs charting why the 1997-2003 TV show 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer is so awesome. It will look at things like how Buffy effected women on TV, the horror genre, God and whatever else I think of. This first one is about the very first scene. I couldn't find it on Youtube to let you see it so watch it on project free TV or some such.

Buffy opens to Sunnydale High School at night, it is dark and eerie music plays (kind of sounds like crickets at first moving to more ominous deeper sounds later).
The camera takes the viewer down some of Sunnydale High's corridors. It passes the library (which will soon become the focal point of the show as it is where Buffy and her friends hang out and is also home to the 'Hellmouth', a portal to another realm inhabited by monsters once banished from earth).

The camera next brings us through a science/history classroom and over to the window, where a dark haired teenager breaks in with his blonde girlfriend in tow.
She is in a Catholic school girl uniform. She asks if it is a good idea to break in, he says of course it is. They walk into the corridor and she asks if this is his school. He is a graduate and wants to bring her to the roof of the gym as 'you can see the whole town from up there.'
She doesn't want to go. She sounds a little scared, perhaps of him or perhaps of being caught breaking into the school.
They are about to kiss when the blonde girl hears a noise and turns and says, 'what was that?' sounding a little jumpy. Leather jacket and mustard t-shirt boy tells her it's nothing, trying to calm her fears.
She still thinks it is something. He moves from her and looks down various corridors and calls 'hello' almost in a singsong voice. It's at this point you begin to feel worried for the blonde girl, they normally die first in movies (so either he is a vampire and will kill her or she has heard a vampire and it will kill them both).
He says, "see, there's nobody here."
She asks if he is sure.
"Yes, I'm sure," he comforts her, sounding a little annoyed that she is so scared.
The blonde girl at this point is looking down a corridor with him behind her. She says ok and turns around.
Snarling her face has distorted and her incisors elongated. She is the vampire. She bites his neck and they both fall to the ground as the opening title sequence begins playing.


Okay, so to some of you that sounds horrible and I apologise if it does. This scene though is fantastic. It turns the entire horror genre on its head and sets the tone for the entire series (which ran from March 1997-May 2003). In this scene we see a tough looking guy, who is clearly trouble as he leads the poor, innocent, Catholic school girl into a school. She gets scared and he comforts her, even if a little mockingly. Then, knowing they are alone, the blonde girl (and not the tough, trouble guy) turns out to be the monster. Up until this point the little blonde girls were normally (if not always) the victims of monsters. Buffy opens with the blonde girl that dies being the one that does the killing. The show continues on a similar thread when it is revealed that Buffy herself is a blonde girl, another damsel in distress that should get killed early on. This time though, the blonde girl is the hero.

Joss Whedon [the creator of Buffy, Angel, Firefly (Serenity), Dollhouse and writer of Toy Story, Alien, Cabin in the Woods and the Avengers (as well as scenes in Iron Man 2, Captain America and Thor)] saw horror films and other filmed mediums and thought that women always played a lesser role and often were seen merely as cannon fodder, someone to be killed off. He didn't like this and wanted to turn it around and surprise people by the 'damsel in distress' turning out to be the hero. Buffy was first called 'Rhonda the Immortal Waitress' because Joss loved the idea of someone who seemed so normal, with a normal job, that should die when facing down a monster, turning out to be the hero.

The first scene, and the statement it made to movie makers, TV makers and perhaps women in general (that women in a show or movie aren't just back up characters or there for sex appeal, but they can be the lead, they can be the hero) is the first thing that makes Buffy shpiffing.

CU: Walking on Water with the Living Water

I want to start this by sharing a story. In Island of Adventures, Universal Studios Orlando, Florida there is a water ride called Ripsaw falls. It has a ridiculously vertical drop. I looked it up and it starts at 45 degrees but then moves to 55 degrees, whereas most are 45-50 degree drops. Also in Ripsaw Falls the log things you sit in are horribly designed. It has no seatbelts and the only thing you can grip onto is the back of the chair in front of you. It has a small indent that fits to the first joint on your finger.

Ripsaw Falls tells a Rocky and Bullwinkle story with little robots moving and sound recordings but do not ask me what they story was because I was so petrified that I honestly have no idea. Now I am not a person who gets scared on rides, I don’t I love them, I love the thrill of them and being spun and upside down and whatever else is all great craic. But that’s when I feel safe.

This ride did not feel safe, no safety equipment was provided, no seatbelts, nothing decent to hold onto, no bar covering you and holding you in place, nada. Fear sets in and you panic, I panicked and I didn’t pay any attention to all the story that probably cost Universal Studios so much money to put together and which I had paid, or well mum and dad had paid, a lot of money for me to experience.

It’s at this point that you try and calm yourself down thinking that many many people use this ride daily and survive and that you have to just trust the operators of the ride to know what they’re doing and to think of my safety as something of paramount importance while on their ride.

Of course the ride turned a corner, just as I thought that, and I see one of them. He has bleached hair, is standing there looking like he normally doesn’t have a job and possibly doesn’t own a shower (or shirts).

It was at this point that my uncle also lost it. He said to me “You’re a Christian, do something religious”. So I took up an offering!

No really I prayed that we would survive the drop, which, obviously, we did; soaked but alive.

Ok so for this I want to look at two Bible passages. The first is found in John 4:1-30: “Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.

     A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

     Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

     Just then his disciples came back. They marvelled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” They went out of the town and were coming to him.”

This passage is a really cool one when you are thinking about water and it tells us a lot about Jesus too. Going back to my other story about the water ride and the operator. That operator inspired no confidence in my life, which I was sure was nearly over. The fact that I looked to the operator tells me something about fear and that is that when we are afraid we look to someone else that we hope is in control. At least that’s what I think. This in our lives more generally is true too. When we are afraid we look to something to take that fear away, that ‘operator’ should be Jesus.

Why water though? Why talk about water? Well first of all my name is Wavey, which has a lot to do with water, second I love water (not being in it but listening to it and being near it), third water is beautiful, necessary but also deadly and lastly Jesus calls Himself the source of Living Water and the Holy Spirit living water.

What does that mean? Just like the body needs water to survive so does the spirit. Jesus is the source of that water. He is all sufficient. We see that when He says ‘never be thirsty again’. What Jesus gives is enough. God revealed this to Paul as well when He said, “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9a). From just that little passage Jesus uses water as a metaphor for how God gives life, for how God’s grace is enough and for how God is our great provider.

There was once a time when God reminded me of some of this stuff using water. It had been a really bad year, my life felt as if it was falling apart. I was visiting a friend who had an apartment facing the river. When the Sun set I was out watching the reflection of the lights from City Hall I think, on the river Lee. The way the lights were shining and the wind was blowing it looked as if the river was flowing towards UCC as opposed to away from it. I was thinking about how chaotic that was and then, floating down the river, the correct direction, came some local election poster. At that point God said to me, “just because everything looks like it’s chaotic doesn’t mean that it is. I am still in control, both of the direction of the river and all the circumstances in your life and though you feel overwhelmed remember that I am enough. Trust me.”

From that passage another thing that strikes me is the second part of verse 14: “but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

It is such a beautiful picture of the abundance God gives us but, as well as that, the idea that the Holy Spirit in us becomes a spring of water which leads us to eternal life but it also suggests the spilling over of the Holy Spirit to touching the lives of others.

I could spend ages more on that passage but I want to talk about another passage. It is found in Matthew 14:22-33: “Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”

     And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Firstly here we have the storm that causes the waves to toss the boat about the place. In the Bible the sea is often shown as this uncontrollable thing. If you think classical period and the amount of appeasing the gods of the sea sailors would do. Think of Jonah and throwing him overboard; that was commonplace. The sea was the uncontrollable thing in creation. There was nothing people could do but appease the gods before they went and pray if they got caught in a storm.

The Bible talks about the One who can control the sea and that is God.

Psalm 29:10 says “The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD sits enthroned as king forever.”

Psalm 89:9 says “You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them.”

Psalm 107:28-30 says “Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven.”

Jesus, walking on the water was showing that God is in control, even over the water and the waves and that He is, in fact, God.

The disciples are terrified of course, they think it is a ghost. I think it is easy for us, in our position 2000 years in the future, to judge the disciples harshly. Even I as I was writing this I said ‘they think it’s a ghost’ and my head sarcastically added, ‘logically’. But we should not do this. Imagine you are in a storm, water is pouring in over the sides of your boat. You remember Jesus calmed the storm last time you were on a boat in a storm like this; and that saved your lives. This time though Jesus isn’t there. He stayed behind and sent you ahead so He could pray. You feel like you are going to die. Then, in the middle of all of this, walking across the water and the waves comes a figure. People don’t walk on water! What does walk on water? Ghosts… The only thing I can think of is a ghost, you say to Peter. That starts a panic.

Jesus’ words are fantastic here. He tells the disciples don’t be afraid. Many scholars think that the word translated ‘it is I’ in the ESV could have been Jesus saying Yahweh, as in the name God called Himself (translated as ‘I am’). So Jesus comes walking across the water, showing He is in control of it and says I am. The disciples got a glimpse of our all-powerful God in human form.

The next thing is my favourite bit of this story. Peter says ‘tell me to come to you’. The walking on water is very cool but even more cool is the fact that Peter trusts Jesus enough to want to join Him on the water.

I think we are often very hard on Peter. We see that he saw the wind and the waves and took his eyes off of Jesus and began to sink and we think Peter failed. Peter did fail but at least he tried. How much more of a failure were each of the other eleven disciples. They are, what John Ortberg calls ‘Boat Potatoes.’ Peter took two steps in his walk to the water, the first was submission to Jesus. He submitted himself to Christ’s power. He didn’t think he could do it himself but knew that he would only be able to walk on water if Jesus commanded him to. The second step Peter took was strength. He walked out of that boat in God’s strength.

I want us to apply this story to our lives. The boat is where you are generally. I don’t want to use this word because I think it is so much more than this, but the boat is like your comfort zone. I like to think of it more as ‘where you are now’ perhaps you are out of your comfort zone by even being here; but perhaps you are never out of your comfort zone. Perhaps your comfort zone on your boat looks like this. Lovely linen, bright room, sea view. Perhaps this is your ship.

Whatever your present place is like you need to open to hearing the call of God in your life, and when you hear that call, coming from the stormy water (something that looks difficult/will be difficult). You have to respond to that call. Your response can be one of two. You can walk on the water or you can be a boat potato.

Perhaps God is calling you right now, maybe into a ministry in Church, like helping with youth group for example.

“I’m too busy Lord!”

That’s boat potato talk.

Maybe it’s to join a summer mission team.

“But I have to work to fund college Lord!”

That’s boat potato talk.

Maybe it is to talk to that non Christian friend or join the CU outreach group.

“My friend/friends will judge me and laugh at me.”

Boat Potato talk.

Maybe it’s to leave college and go to Bible college.

“I want a degree Lord.”

You guessed it, boat potato talk.

Perhaps it’s to get your head down and study to do well in your degree.

“But my friends are doing fun things and I want to go too.”

Okay this is the last time, I promise, that’s boat potato talk!

You get the picture. He calls and we answer. If we make excuses and say no we are being boat potatoes. Now let’s look at the other response.

Peter is called and he submits himself to Jesus. What I mean by this is that he recognises who Jesus is and puts his whole trust in him. He realises he cannot do what Jesus has called him to do in his own strength but only by allowing Jesus to be in control. He fixes his eyes on Christ and he takes his first step towards those outstretched arms. He ignores the problems in his way (the wind and the waves) and keeps his eyes fixed on Jesus, taking step after step forward. This is the first step for us when we respond to God’s call in our lives. We need to submit to Jesus, to turn over all our cares and our worries to him and to focus on him and not on those worries and problems. We need to fix our eyes on him with each and every step we take. We need to trust Jesus to look after us even with all this water (here meaning trouble) around us. We also need to realise we cannot do these things in our own strength but only in Christ’s strength.

It is then that Peter steps out in strength. He moves step by step in the confidence and strength not of himself but of Jesus. When Jesus calls us out of our boats towards a new situation we first submit to Him, then we step out in strength. This strength only lasts while we submit and it is not our own strength but the Lord’s. Yet, He gives it to us to wield. He allows us to step out in that strength and walk on the water. In fact it is Jesus’ desire that we would all be metaphorical water walkers. Of course it is unlikely you will ever physically walk on water, unless you do what Andy is doing here, but even he isn’t succeeding in walking on water with help. Jesus wants us all to answer his call, not be boat potatoes and submit to Him, humble ourselves, realise that He is enough for us as we walk in His strength and accomplish works for His Kingdom. Jesus Himself said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12 ESV). Do we believe Jesus’ words? Do you believe that you will do greater works? Jesus said it, and we know that Jesus cannot lie. Jesus wants us to submit to Him and then go out in His strength and powerfully advance the Kingdom of God in our lives, our communities, our college, our relationships, the places He sends us and the people He sends us to.

Please note that when Peter stops submitting and starts worrying it is then that he sinks. This is the same for us. If, when we are walking on water, we try doing in it in our strength and take our eyes off Jesus, then we will begin to sink under the pressure of everything we have to do. Note though that in the passage that Jesus ‘immediately’ reaches out to rescue Peter. He does that with us too. He is not far off and when we cry out to Him He will be there and will stop us sinking completely. Peter may have been carried back to the boat, he may not have walked on the water again but Jesus rescued him. This might be similar in our experience. We might call on Jesus when we start sinking and we will be rescued but we might still be looking at the waves and problems and perhaps Jesus will not let us walk on the water again for awhile, maybe He will carry us and so we might feel like nothing is getting better because we are not walking, but Jesus has not let us sink and when we are ready to walk again  (when we focus on Him and not the waves) He will allow us, when we submit again then He will give us the ability to go forward in His power again. Then we move the Kingdom of God forward in His power again.

We can only do these powerful works if the Living Water lives in us. The Living Water is the Holy Spirit who flows from Jesus to us, filling us up and giving us life then pouring from us into the lives and situations of the people we find ourselves coming into contact with. Jesus said of the Living Water, which we talked about earlier from John 4: “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (John 7:37-39 ESV).

So, in effect we are walking on water with the Living Water when we respond to the call of God in our lives.

As I close I want you to think is Jesus calling you in any particular direction tonight? How are you going to respond? Are you going to be a boat potato? I beg you not to be so. I beg you to submit to Him, recognise your weakness and His strength, recognise you have nothing but that He has given you everything and will provide everything for you. Fix your eyes on Him and take that step in His strength. Be a child of God that wields the power of God and moves His Kingdom forward everywhere you go. Trust Him, Follow Him, Bring Him. Get out of your boat and walk on the water with the Living Water.

Love 1: Brandy

The first story is about a dog, a cuddly dog, named Brandy. Brandy was not just any dog, he was a dog with a little red dicky bow and a Santa hat. A little boy named David got him for Christmas when he was one year, and a month, old. David loved Brandy a lot (he was named by David’s grandmother who was partial to a brandy every now and again and had recently lost a dog of the same name, though a completely different breed and not a stuffed toy). David used to bring Brandy everywhere. He hoped, that like he did, others would love the little doggie and his red dicky bow and hat. Brandy came to bed, Brandy came for walkies, Brandy even came to school. I’m fairly sure, though not 100% certain, that Brandy may have even come to the bath once or twice. David loved Brandy. For Brandy, the love of that boy has sometimes proven to be a fatal attraction.

If you saw Brandy now you would think very little of him. He once had beautiful ‘fur’ but now it’s all kind of flat against him. His dicky bow is long gone, and one time, when David brought him to play school, some bully tied his Santa hat into a knot. He may, or may not, also be missing an eye.

Despite these facts David still loved Brandy and brought him places, long after the knot in his hat and everything else. If anyone saw Brandy they would think him of little value or worth, they would think him quite worthless, they would think him quite raggéd. He might simply appear to be a filthy rag. He appears fit for the bin only. So much so that he has, three times, been ‘liberated’ from the bin when some parent threw him there, and also bought back from a jumble sale. For some unknown reason, in the way that children often do, David continued to love Brandy even in his raggéd days, just as in the days of his beauty.

You see Brandy is not just a teddy; he is a story. His story and my story are intricately woven, he is my oldest possession, he kept me warm at night as a child and he is a gift from a relative who has passed on. He knows all my secrets, he wiped up a lot of my tears, he shared in a lot of my joys and he was the catalyst that gave birth to my imagination.

Yes I have outgrown him, he sits, gathering dust, on a shelf in my room in Limerick (a place I practically never ever go anymore). Yet, he is there and someday I will take him, get that knot out of his hat, fix the rip in his back, get him a new eye and dicky-bow and give him a good wash and pass him on to Josiah (my son, if I ever have one and if my wife allows that name). To me he will not look better but to others he will look shiny and new. The little spruce up he gets will allow people to see on the outside what I know is on the inside even despite how dusty, dirty, broken and raggéd Brandy is.

I hope that he will then become part of my child’s story, and have worth to them and then be passed on to their child and so on.

Brandy is not important because of what he is, his worth does not come from himself. I have had a number of stuffed toys in my day, especially dogs (I was so unoriginal with names, one was blue with black paws and ears and I called him ‘Black n’ Blue’ and another was brown, I called him Brownie). Each of those other stuffed toys cost the same, I got Brownie on the same day and Black and Blue about six months before. However, those other dogs, who probably cost the same amount of money and were from important people in my life, have gone the way of most children’s toys; they are in a dump somewhere. Brandy was different. Not because he initially had more worth, but because I invested in him. His worth stems, not from himself, but from the value I placed on him.

Question:

Of the two characters in the story, which, on the grand scale, are we more like? Brandy or his owner? Why?

Then which is God more like? Why?

I’m not sure if you got the point of this little story? There are two truths about human beings that matter deeply. The first is that all of us are like Brandy now: flawed, wounded, broken, dirty, bent and sometimes even forgotten. Ever since the fall of man every member of the human race has lived on the raggéd edge. The second is that we are all God’s Brandies. He sees and knows all our raggédness; and He loves us anyway. This love means that our raggédness is no longer the most important thing about us, it no longer defines us. Praise God!