Thursday, April 1: The Life is in the Blood

For the life of the creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar. Leviticus 17:11

“Mrs. Edelbrock, lab results show that you are severely anemic. Let’s run some additional tests to see what might be the underlying cause for your symptoms.”

Well, that would explain the lethargy and fatigue of recent weeks. I have awakened a few nights later as the peace of a February snowfall is once again blanketing the house where my family lies sleeping. The winter stillness frames the underlying thought that pulls me from my bed sheets, “The life of the creature is in the blood.”

In just a few days the six members of my birth family will gather here to celebrate my brother’s 50th birthday. In many ways, this event could not be better timed. We are walking through trying times as we collectively wrestle with the challenges that overwhelm this middle season of life…raising teens, caring for aging parents, planning for college and retirement, confronting precarious personal health and employment issues, and keeping our marriages and families intact as we press on in our daily routines. It’s draining.

The buildup of brokenness in our earthly walk wears us down often leaving us flat, depleted, and despairing. I am learning in my spiritual journey that our individual efforts to cope and stay the course prove to be only temporarily fruitful at best. That which is broken remains broken and fragile until, once fully surrendered, it becomes a transformed and perfected work of God’s ultimate plan for healing and redemption.

This is what I continue to pray for as I release each and every one of my family members to the Lord’s certain and promised care and intervention. He came and gave the gift of His own life to forever cancel the effects of sin and chaos in ours. As we gather at the Cross in just a few days time, let’s consider with rediscovered wonder and awe the unmatched gift of His body and blood broken and drained out for us…then race forth in the miraculously transformed life that sings out in joy-filled witness to the world, “What can take away my sin…what can make me whole again…Nothing but the blood of Jesus!

Abba Father, take up residence in our prayers and our witness as we humbly lift our fallen and broken world to You, that others might come to know the true and transforming power of your life and love. AMEN

Laura Edelbrock