In Christ Alone
Today, I was just minding my own business, living my life. That's when I got a summons from my wife who was putting my youngest son to bed. He shared with her his anxiety about kindergarten. But this night, it was not the typical anxiousness about meeting new people or being in a new place. He was anxious about people asking him about his "folded ear". My wife held my five-year-old as he sobbed about being singled out. She kept him in her bosom while he wept about being asked at every turn on the playground. When I met them in bed, they were praying for his ear to be healed. I, too, prayed for his ear to be healed. Jesus died for my son. He died for my son's ear to be restored. I have full confidence that God will do it, but will He do it before kindergarten starts this fall? I don't know that. So, the real possibility remains that my son will be pestered and possibly even teased about his ear while we wait for God to fulfill his promise.
What is my response? Do I enter into the emotional turmoil with no resolution, no hope? In myself, I have no hope to offer my son. I cannot fix his ear. Neither can I go along with him each day of his kindergarten experience and shield him from the questions from kids about his "folded ear". As I looked inward to God to find answers, this song resonated in me: "In Christ Alone" by Newsboys. This became both the answer from the Holy Spirit and my intercession for my son.
In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
I prayed that my son's spirit would sing of his savior louder than any accusing voices.
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
"Let his character be firmly rooted in Jesus as he interacts with other kids" was the cry of my spirit.
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand
I prayed that my son's safest place be with him every minute: the safe place of Jesus' finished work on the cross.
... No guilt of life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
I prayed for my son to be immune to the power of shame and doubt that would creep up with all the questions his peers would probe him with.
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
‘til He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand
"Let my son be full of supernatural power to stand in who he is in Christ."
As I prayed for my son, I became more and more sure of his salvation through Christ. I know Christ will be revealed in my five-year-old's body, in his mind, in his heart, and in his spirit. It is truly in Christ that our whole life from which our whole life abounds. From the smallest detail to the largest. The Lord Jesus absorbed my son and all the sin in his life and killed it. Jesus became one with my son as He died, so that God could raise up my son with Him into a whole new life.
That's the hope he (and I) can stand on.
