Wrought Iron Man

      Their brother had been dead for four days.  The doctors did everything they could to save him. The two sisters were overwhelmed with grief.  “If only his Personal Physician had been here.  He could have done something.”  But he was out of town at the time.  They sent word to him about the emergency, but he said it wasn’t time for him to come back.  They were confused and distressed. “Didn’t he care?  There’s a story in the Old Testament about a similar situation. 

     “So he went with them. When they came to Jordan, they cut down wood.  But as one of them was cutting a beam, the iron axe head fell into the water: and he cried, ‘Oh no, Master!  I borrowed the axe and I’ll be in trouble.’  And the man of God said, ‘Where did it fall?’  And he showed him the place.”

     Mary and Martha’s brother Lazarus had fallen into the water and had sunk to the bottom. Drowned. Dead.  Lifeless.  No hope.  No way to retrieve him.  No way to bring him back.  Impossible.  The sheep of the flock know the feeling.  Depression, anxiety, fear, disappointment, failures, despair, hopelessness, loneliness, addictions and so many other moments that arrive. . .and the heart sinks to the bottom.  No way to cut down the branches and beams of life. No way to be productive. No way to build up the life again.  No strength, no ambition, no drive.  The heart is drowning.

     “”Where did it fall?”  And he showed him the place where it sunk.  The man of God cut down a stick and threw it into the water;  and the iron axe head floated to the top and swam. And the man of God said, take it up and he put out his hand and took it.” 

     Webster’s dictionary defines “wrought iron” as:  beaten into shape by tools; hammered; shaped by these processes.  Lazarus laid in the tomb.  Death had been wrought on him. His illness had fashioned his heart and took the breath from his soul.  Trials, miseries. . . all the troubles of life, beating and hammering on the heart. The definition of wrought iron goes on to say, “Worked into shape by artistry;  formed beautifully; deeply stirred;  possessed of a highly passionate state of mind; full of life.”    

     “And Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Our friend Lazarus is sleeping; but I’m going now to wake him up. . .then Jesus said to them Lazarus is dead, for they thought he was only sleeping.  Then  Jesus came to the grave where Lazarus had been dead for four days. . .Then Martha said to Jesus, ‘I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give it to you’.  Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.  And Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth; and he that was dead, came forth.”  The  Man of God, threw the timbers of His cross into the waters where Lazarus had laid for four days, and he floated to the top, received the breath of Life, and swam.

     The Wrought Iron Man, forming His sheep with such artistry, recreating the Beauties of Holiness and Love within them;  so full of Life. . .the Lilies, filling the valley with intoxicating fragrance; the Dumbo sheep, hearing Him speak to them, always and only, sweet words of love. . .and those eagles, formed and fashioned with the  Beauties of the Rainbow, soaring above the waters of trials and troubles,  filled with the Fruit of God’s Spirit.

     Wrought Iron sheep. . .conformed to His image.  Power, and Love, and a Sound Mind.  Swimming in the Ocean of His Promises.  All free.  All freely given.