The Scarlet Letter

"NOW HE USES US TO SPREAD THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST EVERYWHERE, LIKE A SWEET PERFUME.  OUR LIVES ARE A CHRIST-LIKE FRAGRANCE RISING UP TO GOD.  BUT THIS FRAGRANCE IS PERCEIVED DIFFERENTLY BY THOSE WHO ARE BEING SAVED AND BY THOSE WHO ARE PERISHING.  TO THOSE WHO ARE PERISHING, WE ARE A DREADFUL SMELL OF DEATH AND DOOM.  BUT TO THOSE WHO ARE BEING SAVED, WE ARE A LIFE-GIVING PERFUME."  2 CORINTHIANS 2:16 "

Sarah playing my heart on the piano.  She is beauty and music in our home.  Creativity and art flow from her fingers.  Coloring the world.  Us.  Making things lovely.  The way she is.

She has been reading The Scarlet Letter for school.  Angry with the ending.  I've been thinking about it  a lot.  You know....

How it is when you walk into a room darkened by silent blanket that smothers all sound?  The stench of death makes them turn away.  Or snicker.  Or mock.  Sometimes their faces fill with hatred.  You arrogant Christian!  Judging others.  Condemning them.  And  they know you.  They know what you have done.  They shake their sad heads that you have fallen so far  from your brain.

"Who does she think she is?  Wearing that letter.  See it stitched in blood on her breast?  That red "C" that that Man put there.  The One Who said, "Go and sin no more.".  The One Who let her off so easy.  (Except for that thing He did on the tree.)  The One she followed to the cross.  To the letter."

You move through the silent room with His feet.  The room that has no oxygen.  Smile His smile.  Reach with His hands.  Try to love the walking dead and breathe the shallow breath of a stranger walking a strange land.  Fish out of water.  The weight of their judgement pulls you so hard to the earth that you feel your lungs collapsing.  They are right, after all.  But for Him.  

You whisper to the heart of Jesus.  "Help me." You straighten your spine.  Lift your chin.  You know to Whom you belong.  He is what makes you.  Makes you strong.

He is the great saving story, and He is the lyrics behind the music Sarah plays on my heart.  Wearing the scarlet letter "C" for Christian.  The letter that has replaced ALL the others.  This  is who I am.  I belong to the Man, and I am carved on His hands.  See those holes?

Bernadette