Through the Knothole of Pain: Love Will Prevail
Because of God’s love, I am the prevailing garden growing out of a grave. Wild and free. Grateful to be in a state of just BEING. Getting here was the feat.
I spend a lot of time studying God and studying people. The more I study both, the more convinced I become that most people misunderstand the true purpose of Scripture.
Many approach the Bible as though it were simply a collection of rules, moral stories, or theological debates. Others dismiss it because they see contradictions between the Old Testament and the New. They see what appears to be an angry God becoming a loving God, as though God Himself changed.
I don't believe that's what's happening at all. I believe the Bible is something far more extraordinary. I have come to see it as a treasure map. A map that teaches us the foreign language God speaks and teaches us his character. A map of how human beings actually work. Spiritually. Emotionally. Psychologically. Across time and space. A treasure map leading us towards reconnecting back to God, in love.
The Old Testament is remarkably honest about humanity. Israel recorded its victories, but even more than that, it recorded its failures. It preserved stories of fear, pride, jealousy, rebellion, idolatry, trauma, oppression, grief, and repeated attempts to solve spiritual problems with human solutions. Very few civilizations documented themselves with such brutal honesty.
But we have to remember something. Every author was writing from within history, not above it.
They understood God only as much as they were capable of understanding Him in that moment. God was revealing Himself patiently to people whose entire framework had been shaped by slavery, violence, survival, and brokenness. They viewed life through the knothole of their pain because pain was the world they knew. People who only knew violence interpreted God through a lens of violence. The aftermath of disobedience is interpreted as punishment rather than simply natural consequence. (Again, God doesn’t promise us freedom from consequence, but He does offer to walk with us through our own wreckage.)
The story doesn’t change because God changes. It changes because our view and understanding of Who He is changed, through Jesus. He did not introduce a new God. He revealed the Father more clearly than humanity had ever seen before. "The one who has seen me has seen the Father." (John 14:9) Suddenly, what had once been viewed through shadows was standing in the light. Jesus didn't simply explain God's character. He embodied it. He showed us what humanity looks like when perfectly connected to its Creator.
Most of us spend our lives searching horizontally for what only exists vertically. We seek unconditional love from spouses. Validation from parents. Identity from careers. Worth from accomplishments. Security from money. Peace from circumstances. Yet none of those things were designed to carry that weight.
The unconditional love our souls long for was never meant to originate from other people or possessions. It flows from God. When we reconnect vertically, to the source as Jesus modeled, our horizontal relationships become healthier. We begin loving instead of clinging. Serving instead of controlling. Giving instead of grasping. Forgiving instead of keeping score. Boundaries become possible because our identity is no longer dependent on another person's approval.
I've noticed people generally fall into one of two patterns. Some become takers, or worse, breakers. Life has left holes in their souls. Sometimes through terrible suffering. Sometimes through choices. Sometimes through wounds they never learned to heal. They live spiritually empty, searching for others to provide what only God can ultimately sustain. Whether intentionally or unconsciously, they consume more than they create because they are always trying to fill what keeps leaking out.
Others become builders. Not because they've suffered less. Sometimes they've suffered far more. The difference is that somewhere along the journey they discovered the Source. They learned to forgive. To release bitterness. To accept responsibility without carrying ownership that never belonged to them. To establish healthy boundaries without becoming hardened. To receive grace instead of endlessly striving for it. Their circumstances may still be difficult. But their spirit is no longer starving.
Jesus described His followers as "the salt of the earth" and "the light of the world." Salt preserves. Light reveals. Builders tend to do both. You can feel the difference after spending time with them. They leave people stronger than they found them.
I suspect many people are responding to Christ long before they know His name. Jesus spoke of "other sheep" who would hear His voice and be gathered into one flock (John 10:16). However we understand that passage, it reminds us that God is not limited by our categories and we can never truly grasp all that He is. His voice reaches farther than we often imagine, and wherever people genuinely respond to His truth, He continues drawing them toward Himself.
Perhaps that has been God's work all along. Patiently leading humanity toward a greater understanding of Him. Changing what we are finally able to see.
The Bible is not merely the story of God. It is the story of God teaching humanity how to love Him, love themselves and love each other well. And every page invites us to make that same journey.
Are you ready to move from a breaker to a builder?
To untangle the baggage that doesn't belong to you, read Responsibility vs. Ownership.
To protect your personal space with fierce grace, read What Is Coercive Control?.
