Aw Flemid

As a little guy, Drew once asked me, “Mom, was does flemid mean?” I replied that flemid was not a real word. Olivia, overhearing our conversation, quickly jumped in. “Yes it is, mom. It is a real word. Like when Grandma tells us not to go in Grandpa’s work room. She says it’s aw flemid.”

Well, there you have it. Grandpa Sauder is a farmer. Returning to the farmhouse each evening requires a first stop in a basement “dirty” room where he sheds the dust of the day before heading to the shower around the corner. It’s a small room with coveralls hanging on hooks and boots lining the cement floor. There’s an old dresser filled with clean t-shirts and blue jeans waiting their turn in the rotation of work clothes that get stained with deep brown Illinois soil. And, it’s not a room where Grandma Sauder wants her grandkids playing. It’s off-limits, or as Olivia and Drew understood, “Aw flemid.”

For hundreds of years, the people of God grasped this concept. There was a place that was off-limits. Not because it was dirty. No, on the contrary, because it was holy. The Holy of Holies – once a year, one select priest, experienced a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He entered this off-limits sanctuary that shook with the glory and greatness of the One True God. There he represented the dirty, sin-stained people God loved but could not come near.  One man, making intercession for the sins of many resulted in the temporary stay of God’s judgement.

Then came Jesus. Humbly leaving heaven and taking the very form of mankind, He rubbed up against the filth yet remained perfectly clean. He died to make the trade, our sin for His righteousness, once for all, and when He was finished suffering, finished dying, finished paying that inestimable price, it was finished. The curtain was torn top to bottom and what was once “aw flemid” burst wide open – unrestrained access to the holy, holy, holy presence of God through the sacrifice of the Son.

At all times now we are invited to dwell in His presence. Access to intimacy with Him has become more precious to me than ever before. To sit with Him, to let Him envelop me, to walk with Him, no condemnation, no fear, no shame . . .a place of purity and power . . . In Him we live and move and have our being.

What was once off-limits is now unlimited.

Go ahead! Draw near to God today and He will draw near to you. Pursue Him. Seek Him. Enjoy Him! Live in His presence.  Darlene Zschech REVEALING JESUS 05 – Your Presence Is Heaven