Don't Look Back This is a 7 part series - Part 6

Imagine this.

The smoke is billowing out the windows, the embers are raining down, and your lungs are on fire with the fullness of hot air. Your home burned down to the ground around you. You’ve escaped, but barely. You managed to get out alive, and not only that, your family is safe, too.

What exquisite mercy. You were scooped up out of the most dire circumstances and protected. You were saved. But, your pictures, your memories, your things. They are all still inside that blaze. You know you ought to be thankful you got out with your life. Yet, so much of your story is in those four walls, with those things.

You would never go back in, right? Not into a burning building, certainly. But, what if you stole just a quick glance? Here is a warning from Jesus about quick glances back to hopeless situations, “Remember Lot’s wife.” (Luke 17:32)

Who was Lot’s wife?

In Genesis 19, we learn about Sodom. We are told that a pair of immoral cities (Sodom and Gomorrah) are set to be destroyed because of their utter wickedness. A man named Lot, his two daughters, and his wife will be spared. They are able to quickly gather themselves and flee their home with two angels by their side. The angels make it clear that Lot’s family must hurry and that they are being spared a certain death.

“And as they brought them out, one (angel) said, ‘Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.” (Genesis 19:17).

In a moment of either worldliness or humanness, Lot’s wife quickly steals a disobedient glance back at her homeland. We’re not sure if she was contemplating returning to her sinful past or if she was simply longing for her home, but what we do know is that she wasn’t putting faith in what she’d been told. She’d been told by two angels of the Lord that she’d been spared, and therefore must leave and not look back.

Because of that quick act of disobedience and distrust, she’s turned into a pillar of salt.

Such instant punishment for such a seemingly small abuse. But, she’d already been pardoned once. How often do we want to return to the mire of our sin, even though we’ve already been saved? How often do we doubt the goodness of God and His promises? How often do we want to do it our own way, certain that we know what is good for us?

After warning us to remember Lot’s wife, Jesus goes on to say, “Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.”

I cannot add a breath to my own life. I’m utterly incapable of sustaining myself. What I know is this: As a follower of Christ, I have been spared and been given a great mercy. So, in an act that sometimes feels like the death of me, I must believe in His goodness, and that what He's saved me for is so much greater than what He's saved me from.

You are Bound No More. 

Leah: From Unloved to Beloved

What woman hasn’t felt like Leah at least one day in her life?

Who hasn’t had the best friend that became homecoming queen? Who hasn’t sighed when she looked in the mirror, desperately trying to camouflage her flaws? Who hasn’t had that moment, perhaps after hanging the eighth bridesmaid’s dress in her closet, that the only way she could possibly get a man to marry her would be if he were tricked?

Rachel, Leah’s sister, was the head-turner of the sisters—Rachel’s name meaning “ewe” and Leah’s, the far less complimentary “cow.” Rachel was the one whom Jacob merely had to lay eyes on and he didn’t care how long it took—he had to make Rachel his wife. Leah, whether by guise of night or veil, then gets thrown into the bride role at the last minute, in her father’s hope that he could marry her off. Somehow.

Jacob rejects Leah.

The Lord, in his infinite wisdom, saw behind Leah’s tender eyes and discerned her heart.Leah may not have been “lovely in form,” but she was exactly what God was looking for through whom to establish the house of David and the lineage of Christ.

Leah recognized her children as blessings directly from the Lord, and despite the pain of rejection and her unquenchable desire to be loved by her husband, she praised Him. (Genesis 29:35)

We’ve all been Leah, with the desire to be loved. We’ve all had to swallow the realization that, not only will other people fall short of our expectations, but we’ll fall short of theirs. We’ve all had to make the decision that even if we don’t get our storybook ending and we don’t get to be the beautiful princess adored by the prince, God is still so, so good and we will praise Him.

We may not ever be homecoming queen. What physically greets us in the mirror each day may not be what others define as “beautiful.” We may not ever get married or experience the type of romantic love we’ve dreamed of (or been told to dream of) since we were little girls.

But I promise you this, ladies—in God’s eyes, we’re all stunning beauties. He wants us to forget what the world thinks is beautiful and remember the beauty He created in each of us. He wants us to desire His admiring glances above anyone else’s.

The truth is, we may never get our prince, but we all get our Prince. Yes, even us Leahs.

You are Bound No More.