A God that Grabs us by the Hair

Sons and Sunshine,

A few years ago when mom and I were in the Vatican Museum we saw a very famous sculpture by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. I didn't think too much of it then only that I knew it was famous but I was reading this week a description of it that really sunk in, I wish I would have thought about it when we were there. The sculpture is of the prophet Habakkuk and an angel. The prophet is holding a packed bag, kind of like a suitcase as if he is traveling somewhere, and his movement is forward, as if he is going somewhere in a hurry. However the angel has grabbed him by the hair, as if lifting him to heaven. "There is something about that image that is so apropos to us. Some of us are very much on our own way, walking in a very different direction than God would have us walk. We need to be redirected, to be pulled by the hair, if you will, up into the heavens to see what Habakkuk saw (1:1)—a vision of God. For only a vision of the triune God can produce this kind of faith, this living, walking, moving forward, lifted high, trust-in-God-even-in-adversity kind of faith." (Douglas Sean O'Donnell)

I can think of many times in my own life where the grace of God has grabbed me by the hair, so to speak, because I have set off on my own way or to do His work in my own way. I think of each of you and can see the same grace of our kind Father. That grace that has had to wound you to heal you, to halt your progress so that you might look heavenward and see the narrow path that faith calls us to walk. I am thankful for those kind wounds in my life and I am thankful for them in yours. Those are the kind of blows that we praise Him for, that we realize were necessary and that we shudder to think what might have happened if He were not so kind as to grab us by the hair and cause us to look heavenward.
I love you deeply...this day the reality of being away from you seems thick, but I commit you again to our Father's care.
May your father's God bless you.
Dad
GK. Chesterton once said, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”