Free From.....

Wandering around a supermarket the other day I came across a set of shelves with the title: “Free From...” , these items were those that were free from a whole host of ingredients which sadly are the cause of allergic reactions to a significant number of people.

It set my mind thinking that we often would like to have our lives free from a variety of ingredients – those unpleasant concerns of fear, poverty, illness, harm or risk. Yet life isn’t like that. No matter what we do we will always be aware of, or actually experience, these nasty concerns. How we handle them isn’t easy neither do they just “go away”.

Jesus doesn’t promise us freedom from these issues rather he promises freedom for us to be able to handle them in a more positive fashion. His promise is that he’s been there too and can share in our concerns and pains, our joys and delights.