Imagine one day you are told that you can't go home... not even to say good bye. You are told that going home could cause the death of one of your children. Think about that for a minute. What is going through your mind? Maybe your one that says... easy... anything for my children. Maybe your one who is broken and can't take the news. Wherever you fall, the response I imagine would not be one that comes lightly for any loving and caring parent. Well that's what happened to me this last week. The story is a bit shocking for me to tell, but even more shocking is what God revealed to me today in service. Will you join me as I share my struggle with you?
This is our newest addition to our family, Declan. He's about 6 months old now (3 months in this pic) He has been a wonderful new part of our lives. His older brother and sister, though they fight with each other, adore him. He is the largest of the babies we have had weighing in at 8.4. "Dec" has truly found his place among the Lynch Clan.
Last week my world came crashing down for a moment in time. Saturday night I started to get a strange sensation on my right eyelid. Sunday morning it began to break out in sores. I went to a walk-in clinic and they informed me I had symptoms of the Shingles virus and that I needed to see ophthalmologist right away. My wife made an appointment for me on Monday morning, by which time my eye was severally broken out and painful. The ophthalmologist confirmed the diagnosis and adjusted my prescription to her liking. She set another appointment for me the next day for a check up. Returning Tuesday I was shocked yet again when the ophthalmologist said the meds were not working and my eye was worse. At this point I told her I also had tingling on my torso. Knowing our family and children, she had great concern and uttered words I will not soon forget. She looked at my mother-in-law and said "Can the baby stay with you? he has to get out of the house." Being it is easier for me to be removed from our home, I willing volunteered. The ophthalmologist then informed us that Shingles can be deadly to infants and has an incubation period of up to two weeks. I could not go home until my eye had drastic improvement. She placed me on stronger antivirals and my wife set me up in a hotel room. My exile had begun.
Now, I have willingly been away from my family for weeks at a time with your average "daddy misses you" feelings. But there was something about being told I could not return to my home or it could be detrimental to my 6 month old. The more that sunk in the more my heart broke. People began to pray and God began to work. Thursday I returned to the ophthalmologist and the sores had reached the non-contagion point and I was aloud to return home. Currently my wife and I are still taking precautions and I am not holding or touching my baby, but I can see him and smile at him and make him laugh. It is still difficult not to pick him up when he cries or when he puts his arms out.
Today in church God reversed the roles on me. I distinctly heard God speak to my heart "This was us". We are born stained with sin and unavailable to the presence of God. Our sickness keeps us from His closeness and redeeming love. We are exiled from His holy presence because He can't look upon sin without judgment. We become distant and lonely with a void for closeness. Our state is not a great one and how it must break The Father's heart much more than it broke mine not to be with my son.
Then Christ comes into the picture. II Corinthians 5:21 tells us that He (God) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Most teach that Jesus "carried" the weight of the worlds sin to the cross, but I think this verse show us He did so much more... HE BECAME IT! And from the cross Jesus said "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" or Father Father, Why have you forsaken me? Can you imagine that? Christ, the most intimate relationship with the Father, experienced separation for us! And He experienced it that we might know union with the Father through Him!
If we can even gaze with an inkling of revelation upon this, God must be heartbroken over the separation of so many. How the disease of sin is deadly and contagious and how God must be devastated at those who choose to remain in exile rather than receive the proper Remedy, which is Christ, to bring us back into His loving arms once again.
I am home now, and to be reunited with my family is like no other feeling in the world. This time was different than one of my youth trips or conventions, this was defeating the disease that separated us, this was coming home to wholeness and healing! For me, this was a picture of what Christ did for us on the Cross by becoming our disease, taking it to the cross and reuniting us with The Father!
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