I walked into our 4/5 classroom a week or so ago to put a note on the teacher’s desk. She was giving her students a spelling test and I shuddered. My mind went quickly back to school when I was taking (and failing) spelling tests. It didn’t seem to matter how much I drilled the words; when it came to test day, I couldn’t spell them right. As an adult, I am extremely thankful for the right click of the computer mouse button while hovering over a word underlined in red!
However, there is a word I never spell wrong. I haven’t spelled it wrong since my aunt helped me study for the spelling test that contained it countless years ago. The word is together. I remember my aunt saying, “Break it down, and think of it like this: I will go to get her so we can be together.” From then on that word has been cemented in my brain. Often I can’t even see it without hearing that little nmonic mnemonic (thank you spell check) device play in my head.
As I thought of our Lutheran Schools Week hymn “Life Together, Life Forever,” once again that little sentence popped into my consciousness and I began to consider it in relation to us, the bride of Christ, His church.
I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him… Those words that Martin Luther wrote are part of our confession because they speak the truth of Scripture. We simply cannot come to Christ, so He came to get us. At first He came to get us through our baptism as we were washed clean of sin. Through His Word and His body and blood in Holy Communion, He continues to come to get us in order to forgive us and strengthen us in our faith. Ultimately He will come again to get us to take us to be with Him forever in heaven.
[Tweet “We simply cannot come to Christ, so He came to get us.”]
Jesus said to his disciples, “Don’t be worried! Have faith in God and have faith in me. There are many rooms in my Father’s house. I wouldn’t tell you this, unless it was true. I am going there to prepare a place for each of you. After I have done this, I will come back and take you with me. Then we will be together” (John 14:1-3 CEV).
Without Christ, we, his bride, are lost and forever separated from our bridegroom. Knowing this, He came to us and rescued us—and thus communicated the idea: “I will go to get her, so we can be together.”
Illustration (c) Archv/iStock
