Flee like Lot to the Mountain
"But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt." Genesis 19: 26
Poor Lot's wife couldn't resist taking a peek at the destruction. I would have looked too, a spectacle of fire and brimstone from the Lord doesn't happen everyday. Really it was too bad, nearly unfair, that she turned to salt. It's our human nature to stare at terrible things so she couldn't have helped it if she had tried.
I'm giving Lot's wife a hard time here, but it's only because I am Lot's wife. We have recently left our home in Iowa, quite quickly and with plenty of fire on our heels (a story for another time). When we got to our "Zoar", it took a long time for me to adjust. Our things are packed up in boxes, we're living in a house that is not ours and it seemed that everything was destroyed, and some of myself along with it. How am I supposed to run a household without my household? How...? What am I supposed to do with myself now? Just as much as a job loss is a blow to a man's self-worth, so a loss of a home is to a woman's self-worth. Lot's wife wasn't looking at the pretty fire falling from the sky, she was watching her house, and all her worldly control and comfort, being consumed in the fire.
They were told not to look... Why did she? It was her heart that turned her head. It is so easy to place your well-being in the things of this world that you surround yourself with like the walls of your home, in your routine that you made for yourself so that you might fill your day and find yourself being of some use and importance. However these things are fleeting and there is nothing so poignant to that realization than having them destroyed or put out of reach. It's only then that you realize that your home is not being destroyed, rather you are being restored to your true Home. You realize that your true possessions are in heaven and your true household is the body of Christ. You remember that the angels took you by the hand and led you out, bearing all your concerns to the Lord. You realize that serving your family means self-sacrificing love and not that you have your life and home in perfect order. And you remember that it's not the day that needs to be filled, but your heart that needs to be filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit.
What a blessing it is to come and sit at our Lord's feet and hear Him, to bring your children to Him, and to let your salt-crusted heart dissolve in the merciful, life-giving waters of Christ God, to bleed out the salt from your heart in the tears of repentance.
O my soul, flee like Lot to the mountain, and take refuge in Zoar before it is too late!
Poor Lot's wife couldn't resist taking a peek at the destruction. I would have looked too, a spectacle of fire and brimstone from the Lord doesn't happen everyday. Really it was too bad, nearly unfair, that she turned to salt. It's our human nature to stare at terrible things so she couldn't have helped it if she had tried.
I'm giving Lot's wife a hard time here, but it's only because I am Lot's wife. We have recently left our home in Iowa, quite quickly and with plenty of fire on our heels (a story for another time). When we got to our "Zoar", it took a long time for me to adjust. Our things are packed up in boxes, we're living in a house that is not ours and it seemed that everything was destroyed, and some of myself along with it. How am I supposed to run a household without my household? How...? What am I supposed to do with myself now? Just as much as a job loss is a blow to a man's self-worth, so a loss of a home is to a woman's self-worth. Lot's wife wasn't looking at the pretty fire falling from the sky, she was watching her house, and all her worldly control and comfort, being consumed in the fire.
They were told not to look... Why did she? It was her heart that turned her head. It is so easy to place your well-being in the things of this world that you surround yourself with like the walls of your home, in your routine that you made for yourself so that you might fill your day and find yourself being of some use and importance. However these things are fleeting and there is nothing so poignant to that realization than having them destroyed or put out of reach. It's only then that you realize that your home is not being destroyed, rather you are being restored to your true Home. You realize that your true possessions are in heaven and your true household is the body of Christ. You remember that the angels took you by the hand and led you out, bearing all your concerns to the Lord. You realize that serving your family means self-sacrificing love and not that you have your life and home in perfect order. And you remember that it's not the day that needs to be filled, but your heart that needs to be filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit.
What a blessing it is to come and sit at our Lord's feet and hear Him, to bring your children to Him, and to let your salt-crusted heart dissolve in the merciful, life-giving waters of Christ God, to bleed out the salt from your heart in the tears of repentance.
O my soul, flee like Lot to the mountain, and take refuge in Zoar before it is too late!
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Sarah from WonderfulReflections