I’m not sure exactly where I’m going with this, so bear with me….
Stretching. You know, the kind you do when you wake up in the morning that feels sooooooooo good? Basically, involuntary. We do it without thinking. It feels necessary to the day beginning and for us to begin the process of waking up to face another day. It’s almost impossible to hold it back once you start. (Tomorrow morning, just TRY to stop stretching half-way through the reflex!)
I wondered why? Why does it feel so good to stretch our arms out in the morning? Why do we all share the same instinctive reflex to spread our arms to a new day?
Turns out, it’s the body’s natural way of getting BLOOD FLOWING again. We’ve spent the night hours lying down in one position and the blood tends to settle. Stretching opens up the body to receive more oxygen – you know, that life-giving stuff we breathe? 🙂
In other words – when we stretch, something good happens.
Now, I could go into the analogy that comes to mind with “stretching” ourselves out of a particular comfort zone. Those places in our lives where the “blood has settled” and we are content to the point of laziness to stay in a semi-sleep state of existence. Going through the motions but never experiencing anything new or fresh that God has for us. Settling for breathing stale air with blood-starved “muscles”.
I could go there. But not today.
Today (and I’m literally stretching as I’m writing this – the power of suggestion!) I’m thinking about the picture of stretching. Arms wide open. Chest expanded to receive. Blood flowing. That posture that allows so many good things to happen because our arms are open to give. Our hearts are available to receive. Something good happens.
What happens when we allow those two things to become our reflex? When we say, “Here I am, Jesus” and really mean it? Vulnerable to His voice and ready to be that open vessel where His love is allowed to pour into and flow out of us. Something good happens.
Here’s what happens: Just like the literal stretching that we most likely experienced this morning, there is a rejuvenation that happens. Not just in our physical muscles, but in our spiritual ones. The BLOOD GETS FLOWING in the form of renewed passion, energy and a healthy urgency to love. Oxygen is drawn in, in the form of hearing God’s voice, experiencing His intimacy and knowing His presence. New life begins to run through our veins and we and those around us are changed. Something good happens.
My thoughts can’t help but go to someone else who stretched. Who literally stretched His arms out on a cross to die for us. And what did that stretching involve? BLOOD FLOWING. Life giving, rejuvenating, cleansing blood. The stretched arms that exposed His breaking heart. His last breath taken to breathe life into us. Something good happened.
Breathe in. Breathe out. Streeeeeeeeeeeetch….
And watch something good happen…
1 Peter 3:18 – For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God,,,
1 John 3:16 – By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
2 Timothy 1:6 – For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God…
John 13:34-35 – “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
