The New Birth

Lord, where are you taking me?  He smiled broadly and put His hand out for me to grasp.  The well beaten path was narrow and winding.  The entry to this passageway was so well hidden, that it was apparent that only Jesus knew of its location.  The sun shone through the branches like lightning rods this crisp morning.  We walked for what seemed like just a few minutes, though my watch told me an hour had passed.  I was captivated by the intense aroma of the newly blossomed spring flowers.  The air was so fresh and clean that I never got winded in that entire hour.  The birds chirped in harmony as if to set the stage for opening night at the theater, building up to something grand and marvelous.  We stopped and he told me to close my eyes.  I stood there with great anticipation, taking in everything I could with all of my senses.  The captivating sounds.  The intense smells.  My eyes still remembering the surreal beauty of this curious place.

My hands in His, we began to move into a glade.  I could feel the warm and radiant sun move over my face as we moved out from under the tree cover.  He told me open my eyes.  What I saw next was so unimaginable that I am struggling to put it into words…

The image was almost holographic.  It was a moment of time, snatched right out of the past.  I saw myself as a young woman.  It was the day I gave my heart to the Lord.  It was being played out before me, but not from a bystanders perspective.  It was the way God, the Father saw it!  I will refer to my (holographic) self as “the woman” because it won’t make any sense otherwise.  I concentrated intently on the woman and I noticed that she was looking right at ME!  (or rather, right at the Father)  But not with her eyes exactly.  I can’t find the words to explain it.  I could see more than just the outward appearance of the woman.  I could see another dimension of her.  I could see her soul and I watched as she willed it to open.  Her soul was so intricately connected to her body that somehow her eyes were like windows to her soul.  When it began opening, it created an inward draft of sorts.  And coming on the tail end of the draft was Jesus Himself.  As He drew nearer to her, he drew in a deep breath and breathed on her.  In his breath was a beautiful and bright life form.  As it entered her, it illuminated her soul and her eyes lit up.  I must have stopped breathing as I took in this scene because I suddenly gasped for air.  I realized that this was the moment she opened her heart to the Lord.  Jesus came and filled her with His Holy Spirit!  It was like witnessing a new birth.  A third dimension came to life in her for the very first time.  The Spirit filled her and she began to weep and to praise the Father.  Jesus stood before her and put a seal on her, a permanent seal, marking her for Himself for all eternity.  He turned and looked right at me with such a look of pleasure that I can’t stop smiling about it.  (I remembered once again that He was actually looking at His Father.)  It was the look of a very happy groom shooting a glance to his father after he kissed his bride!  He was celebrating in the moment, taking everything in as if to really remember the sounds, the sights, the smells of this beautiful moment in time.  He was taking a memory snapshot.  He was beginning a new life with me, His bride.

Concept taken from:

1 Peter 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. 

Eph 1:13b-14 When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession--to the praise of his glory.

Rev 19:7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.