While watching a basketball game on TV, in which one team had lost 25 games in a row, the camera showed a couple sitting in the crowd. The picture (see below) captures the moment that someone who had lost hope that their team could win has their belief stitched back together again. I was hit with the fact that while one sign is unblemished, the other shows all the damage of the ruin. In this lady’s hand is a sign that has been repaired or redeemed.
The word redeemed is a rare word and is commonly used in our modern-day vocabulary to refer to some religious event. However, the effect of redemption and what it can produce is very common for every person. Redemption generates hope. Hope is fuelled by the idea that things, situations, relationship, and human bodies can be redeemed, repaired or restored. Redemption implies that something is made to function in a perfect way and when its not functioning that way we know its damaged. We encounter redemption when we head to hospital to find restoration for breaking bodies. We find redemption when spring arrives and wildflowers bloom in the wheatbelt. We participate in redemption when we repair connections with our family or old friends.
We read the story of redemption in the Bible. The theme of redemption is threaded through a tale of original perfection, broken humanity, a process of restoration, and then a final and full return to perfection. The entirety of the Bible story places the whole of the redemptive power in the hands of a character: the Redeemer. The Redeemer is the one who knows the original design, and has the power to restore the broken to its original goal.
If your hope is low or you need some level of redemption in any part of your life, whether it be in your body, your relationships, your mental state or any other part of life, please be reminded today that Jesus the Redeemer is at work. Whatever we hand to Him, He can begin the redemption work and restore things to its perfect original purpose.
Peter Chase
College Chaplain • Pastoral Care
