Frozen layers

Submitted by RR on Fri, 26/02/2021 - 15:27

There are drifts of snowdrops flowering in the village churchyard, and the green spears of daffodil leaves are showing on the green. But high in the Swiss Alps the flowers will still be buried deep in snow. Edelweiss perhaps…

or gentians…

or – my particular favourite – soldanella.

The soldanella, or Alpine Snowbell, is a remarkable plant. During the summer it stores the sun’s energy in its roots, and then as Spring arrives and the sun begins to melt the layer of snow above it, its buds begin to form. The energy of their growth actually melts the snow above them, making a little dome of air which rises as they grow taller. At last the layer of snow above them is so thin that the bud pops up through the snow and the flowers emerge.

How many hearts, I wonder, have been covered by frozen layers of loneliness and sadness during this past year of fear and isolation? How many little children have been denied the opportunities they need to form relationships with friends and family which will enable healthy emotional development? And children don’t just ‘bounce back’ as we might like to think; the effects of early experiences can last into adulthood, shaping our thoughts about ourselves and others, and impacting on our behaviour. That’s true, of course, of experiences throughout life but there are ‘critical periods’ in children’s development which make them particularly vulnerable.

When Adam fell, it was not only our physical health that was affected. We are, as Francis Schaeffer puts it, like icebergs, with far more below the surface than above it. Only God has complete, perfect knowledge of us, but we can know – if we want to – something of what is ‘above the surface’. Impatient or unkind or proud or fretful attitudes perhaps; or a critical or unforgiving or bitter spirit. We can hide such things from other people, or from ourselves, though not from the God who sees and knows all things. Yet if we know and love the Lord Jesus, and want to be ever more like Him, we will want these things to change. There can be restoration and healing; not perfection in this life, but real, substantial healing all the same. Just as the soldanella draws its energy for growth from the sun, so we have no inner strength or power of our own which can restore us. Instead we must rest wholly on the basis of the finished work of Christ on Calvary.

“My part is to function in that which is above the surface, and to ask God to help me to be honest. My part is to cry to God for the part of the iceberg that is above the surface and confess whatever I know is true guilt there, bringing it under the infinite, finished work of Jesus Christ. It is my opinion, and the experience of many of God’s children, that when one is as honest as one can be in dealing with what is above the surface, God applies this to the whole; and gradually the Holy Spirit helps one to see deeper into himself.

We may know, as the value of Christ’s death is infinite, so all the true guilt in us is covered, and the guilty feelings that remain are not true guilt, but a part of these awful miseries of fallen man: out of the historic fall, out of the life of the race, and out of my own personal past. The comprehension, moment by moment, of these things is a vital step in freedom from the results of the bonds of sin, and in the substantial healing of the separation of man from himself.” Francis Schaeffer: True Spirituality

Then we will find that ‘to you who fear My name, the Sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in His wings.’ (Malachi 4:2)

Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:11)

I bring my sins to Thee,

The sins I cannot count,

That all may cleansèd be

In Thy once-opened fount:

I bring them, Saviour, all to Thee;

The burden is too great for me.

My heart to Thee I bring,

The heart I cannot read,

A faithless, wandering thing,

An evil heart indeed:

I bring it, Saviour, now to Thee,

That fixed and faithful it may be.