I love the visual imagery of castles and knights. I love the contrast between the dark, shadowy castle built high on a craggy, ominous looking cliff … and … the light-filled silvery castle in the midst of beautiful gardens with a lively stream, birds chirping, a song in the air.
For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. ~Colossians 1:13-14
We watched Prince Caspian yesterday. I still hear the battle cry … “For Aslan!” And in that moment my heart is warmed.
But then I’m reminded of a much greater cry … Christ’s battle cry on the cross … “It is finished.” In that moment he spanned the chasm between darkness and light. He made possible my rescue … from the dark dominion … to his eternal light.
He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the LORD was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me. ~Psalm 18:16-19
All because he “delighted in me.” He loves me … now. And he did then … in that moment on the cross … in the midst of that great battle when he laid down his life for me. He even loved me before the foundation of the world … when he chose me and prepared the kingdom for me!
Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ~Matthew 25:34
I was and could have remained a grovelling creature … chained to the earth … enmeshed in the darkness of the dungeons of life. But God breathed life … His life … in me!
I was a grovelling creature once,
And basely cleaved to earth;
I wanted spirit to renounce
The clod that gave me birth.
But God has breathed upon a worm,
And sent me, from above,
Wings such as clothe an angel’s form,
The wings of joy and love.
With these to Pisgah’s top I fly,
And there delighted stand,
To view beneath a shining sky
The spacious promised land.
The Lord of all the vast domain
Has promised it to me;
The length and breadth of all the plain,
As far as faith can see.
How glorious is my privilege!
To thee for help I call;
I stand upon a mountain’s edge,
Oh save me, lest I fall!
Though much exalted in the Lord,
My strength is not my own;
Then let me tremble at his word,
And none shall cast me down.
~Cowper
