ODJ: spacious

July 30, 2015 

READ: Luke 2:21-35 

I have seen your salvation (v.30).

In 2003 the Crafton family—dad, mum, two daughters and a son—sold their home and possessions and set out on a sailing voyage in which they travelled 30,000 miles over 83 months. The family says the experience, something not practical or possible for most of us, drew them closer together and made their lives feel more open and spacious. Before setting sail, parents Tom and Kathleen realised that their successful careers and two houses, though providing the external symbols of success, weren’t making for the life they desired. So they headed for open waters.

After Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph took Him to the temple in Jerusalem to be dedicated to God—a traditional firstborn ritual for all Jewish families (Luke 2:22). An old man named Simeon met them at the temple, for he had eagerly waited “for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel” (v.25). When Simeon saw Jesus, he exclaimed with joy, “I have seen [the Sovereign Lord’s] salvation” (v.30).

The Hebrew root word for salvation carries the meaning of “roominess”. Salvation is the place where we can breathe free again. It means stepping out from the dark corners and into the sunlit meadows . . . to blue skies where everything’s possible, everything has been made free. Salvation provides spaciousness.

God’s spacious salvation is so vast that it includes the entire world, for it’s available to “all people” (v.31). When God invites us to receive salvation, He invites us to be made free, to truly live, to embrace His spacious life. Some may think that life with Him is crampt and filled with confining rules and commands. But they’re wrong. Life within God’s salvation is wide open and free by His design.

—Winn Collier

365-day-plan: John 8:21-59