Every Square Inch--A Closer Look

Linking with Michelle @ Graceful in her, Hear It on Sunday, Use It on Monday series:

Haven’t I commanded you?  Strength!  Courage!  Don’t be timid; don’t get discouraged.  GOD, your God, is with you every step you take.”  Joshua 1:9, The Message

Be blatantly honest with God about your fears, worries, concerns and anxieties.  Tell him exactly why you are scared, and be assured that he hears you.  Thank him for listening.  Then reread the passage, personalizing the words by making God’s words to Joshua your very own.  Eugene Peterson, The Message//Remix:  Solo.

My kids.  It’s always my kids.  I’m always worried about my kids.  When they were young, I worried about bumps and bruises.  I worried about whether or not they would learn to crawl, sit, and stand according to normal developmental guidelines.  I worried they wouldn’t be able to navigate the transition from bottle to Sippy cup.  If a mother’s worry could have prevented her children from ever getting an ear infection, mine would have been protected for life.  I always worried about ear infections.

Through the years, I’ve worried about their education, choosing to home school them to make sure they were learning just the right things.  I worried about whether or not they would get into college.  I worried about the influence of the culture surrounding them--the many dangers, toils, and snares.

I’m a mom.  I worry about my kids’ physical, emotional, and spiritual health.  It’s what I do.  And I know that my worry is sin.

The above verse from the book of Joshua is found in the context of Israel, poised at the banks of the river Jordan, about to enter the Promised Land.  There, God said these things to Joshua:

Moses my servant is dead.  Get going.  Cross this Jordan River, you and all the people.  Cross to the country I’m giving to the People of Israel.  I’m giving you every square inch of the land you set your foot on—just as I promised Moses.  Joshua 1:2, 3

Every square inch.  Where have I heard those words recently?

God has claimed all of creation--every square inch held captive to the decay and brokenness of sin--for His kingdom.  I get excited when I meet and hear stories of followers of Christ who are passionate about restoring God’s kingdom.  Believers affirm the heart cry, Thy Kingdom come, when through their work in art, government, science, education, and music they shine the light of the gospel into the dark recesses of this broken world.  When I see their efforts, my faith is strengthened to believe God’s promise to redeem every corner of creation.

When I read the words every square inch in this passage, however, connected to the inheritance God promised to Moses and to Joshua--and before them to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob--I remembered something my pastor said last Sunday:

We are the inheritance God has given to His son Jesus.

Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring.  It does not say, ‘and to offsprings,’ referring to many, but referring to one, ‘and to your offspring,’ who is Christ.  Galatians, 3:16, ESV

God’s promise to Joshua wasn’t just about land, and it wasn’t just made to Old Testament patriarchs.  God’s promise, fulfilled in part when Israel entered the Promised Land, was but a picture of the inheritance He pledged to His beloved Son.  God promised to redeem and restore every square inch of creation as a gift, as an inheritance for His Son.  Sometimes I think it's easier for me to believe the big picture of God's redemption plan than it is for me to trust Him with the details.  My worries and fears betray my belief that a square inch or two might just get overlooked in the work God is doing to restore all of creation.

Because every square inch includes people.

Every square inch includes my children.  My children, through faith in Christ, are part of the inheritance God has given His Son.  That means that every square inch of them belongs to Jesus--every hair on their heads, every strand of DNA, every synapse in their brains.  Yes, all of creation groans for restoration from brokenness and sin, but not just the creation:

And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.  Romans 8:23, ESV

God is in the process of repairing and restoring every single place that is broken in the lives of my children.  They belong to Him.  It’s not up to me to protect and preserve them from every conceivable danger I can imagine or, heaven forbid, from the ones I can't.  Instead, I can rest in the confidence that every place I leave my footprint in their lives is holy ground, and God has promised to be with me.

So I return to the book of Joshua, believing that my children belong to Jesus and clinging to God’s promise.  I listen to God's words to Joshua and pray to make them my own:

In the same way I was with Moses, I will be with you.  I won’t give up on you; I won’t leave you.  Strength!  Courage!