Bind them.

In my front yard we have beautiful white peonies. In early Spring, they begin to sprout up, their beautiful green leaves attracting attention. By late Spring, they form perfectly round buds and I start to keep watch on them, because I know that at any moment, they will start to open up, slowly showing their beauty. By early June, they blossom, and every year, I have to step in to help these beautiful flowers out. You see, the blossomed flowers are too heavy to hold themselves up on their own. Their stems are weak and they bend so far, that I fear that they might snap right off. If any rain comes, then the huge white blooms get water logged and droop all the more. When this occurs, each year, I go into the garage and pull out some string and begin to gather up the stems and hold up the blooms. I make a double or triple knot about one third of the way up, surrounding all of the stems. Just the string is enough to keep them standing tall, perfectly positioning the blooms to welcome all our guests. While grabbing stem by stem, bloom by bloom, it was suddenly revealed to me how much the act of binding up my peonies is just like what Jesus came to do and what we are called to follow after Him in doing. “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” –Psalms 147:3 “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planning of the Lord for the display of this splendor. “–Isaiah 61: 1-3 As followers of Christ, we are called to stand by those that are weak, heavy burdened, and overwhelmed. When their heads are hanging low, we must step in and moment by moment; encourage, pray, assist, protect. By doing this, we bind them and hold them up, so that their life can show the beauty and purpose, that God has for them and them alone. By helping bind them and strengthening them, we are pleasing God, just as seeing my beautiful peonies stand tall in the sun pleases me. In Matthew 16:19, the Bible says, “ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” The opportunity to strengthen the weak and mend the broken is an effort that will have everlasting results, not one moment of encouraging, praying, assisting, protecting will go wasted or unnoticed.