Abandoned

Sinner of sinners. You awful wretch.
Mary's own conscience gouged her almost as painfully as the fear of doom to come. Her knees shaking so fiercely that she could hardly stand. Yet they pushed her on.
Down through the streets she was shoved, sifting past the rude cries and harsh laughter of those who happened to be there when she fell, when her shame was openly exposed.
She glanced aside and saw her best friends turn aside, ashamed to have known her. She cried aloud, mournful wails and heaving sobs silencing the children playing on the streets, caused dogs to bark and howl seemed to still the very air she breathed. Yet they shoved her forward.
"Stone her!" many called to the solemn-faced procession. "Uphold the Law of Moses!" the chant arose, rising higher, growing louder, like a sudden rush of water through a broken dam. "Uphold the Law of Moses! Uphold the Law of Moses!"
Some overly-zealous young men and women joined the march toward the city center. Toward the Man. The Prophet.
The Son.
They threw her down before His feet crying: "This one we found in adultery! The law of Moses said that we should stone her, but what do you say?"
The Man crouched down on His knees to write in the dirt with His finger. Mary saw the writing as the Pharisees waited eagerly. Tears came to her eyes.
They asked again, "Teacher, we caught this woman in the very act of adultery. Should she be stoned, according to the law of Moses?"
Mary watched as the Man stood and looked fearlessly to her captors. "Whoever here is without sin, let him throw the first stone at her."
There was a moment's silence, like the calming of the wind before a storm hits. Then the Man leaned over again, and continued to write.
Mary heard the scuffling of feet, and a distant murmur. Her eyes were locked on the words in the dirt. Her soul groaned and rejoiced as she interpreted the writing. The tears continued flowing freely from her eyes and fell to the dust, just as sunlight falls and is lost in the blades of triumphant grass.
The Man looked up at her then, stripped of jewelry, her hands bleeding and numb, her lip trembling.
He looked around, His mouth still closed in the perfect peaceful arc of a king, joyful, yet sober. "Woman," he said, looking back to her frail face. "where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?"
Mary could not look away. His eyes were full of kindness. "N--no one... Lord."
He smiled.
Her breath was sucked away. Her life felt real, yet unreal. Others had gathered all around the Man, watching this incredible scene unfold.
"Neither do I. Go, and sin no more."
Her heart jumped up inside her like a young lamb, prancing and leaping on the sides of the mountains.
In that moment her life changed. She found peace. She found a hurricane of love, unrelenting. She found herself, Abandoned.

"Therefore I say to you, her sins, which [are] many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, [the same] loves little."

As Mary, I have been forgiven the greatest of sins. I have been reconciled to God, brought back to union and friendship with Him through the sacrifice and love of my Love, Jesus Christ.

You don't need to go and rebel just so you can find God's love and love Him in return. You don't need a "greater sin" to come closer to God. Jesus was the closest man to ever walk with God, and He never sinned once. Yet we as Christians sometimes get a sideways view of what's really happening, and we think that because "he" or "she" lived in such darkness, they have the ability to live in such light. And there is truth in that. However, we love Him... because He first loved us.

Not because we saw the darkness, but because we saw the Light. God is soooo beautiful! We don't need something to contrast with Him to make Him look better! Even if we did, we can contrast our very best deeds and He comes out far above it all. Because, as it says in Isaiah 64:6, our righteousness is as filthy rags. Actually meaning the equivalent of used toilet-paper. Gross.

What's my point? I'm rambling, I know. But I think this is something we need to tap into as if our lives depended on it. And that is the revelation of reality. The revelation of truth. The revelation that we are His children, and no matter what you have come through, He wants YOU to be the one closest to His heart.

Whether you come from a background of grace, peace, forgiveness, sitting at His feet and gleaning from Him, or whether you came from a place of hungering for even the little crumbs that fell from the Master's table, or whether you came from a life of sin and shame and suffering, the message is the same for you as it is with anyone else. When we know how much He loves us, we will WANT to simply waste our lives on Him 24-7. We will break the flasks of our security and success, pour our gifts and savings out on Him, and wipe His feet with the "hair of our head", casting aside all dignity. 

Because He, loves us.

He loves you.

And nothing else in the world matters.