Standing in the Waters of Death (Hebrews)
In my reading this week, I came across a sentence in a prayer that has resonated with me and won’t leave me alone. The image has rubbed itself into my mind and etched a place in my heart. My gratitude overflows and my mind keeps tracing it. Here it is, this sentence in the midst of an entire prayer about shortcomings, a prayer about living in the wilderness, about discouragement and yet the hope that lies even there in Christ: “ Death dismays me, but my great high priest stands in its waters and will open me a passage, and beyond is a better country ” (“Shortcomings” from The Valley of Vision , p. 85). My fixation isn’t really on the part about death so much as Christ standing in its waters opening me a passage to a better country beyond. I had just gotten to Hebrews in my daily reading when I read this and decided to read the whole book in one sitting instead of slowly perusing it and chewing on it as I normally would digest it. Having read it often, I knew that I would see a p...