Leaping - by Laura Duke

I read this in Malachi 4:2 today “But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.”

Malachi’s book tells of God rebuking the priests and people of the time for their ungodly and unjust behaviours and actions, while telling of the coming of Christ and the judgement and grace that he brings for those who ‘fear’ his name.

This verse tells of the ‘sun of righteousness which most scholars agree is a reference to the Christ himself, bringing ‘healing in its wings’. I find this imagery stunning! The ‘wings’ of the sun refer to it’s rays. It’s saying that Jesus, the light of the world (John 8:12), comes bringing healing in his arms, even healing in the metaphorical rays of light that emanate from himself. Can you imagine sitting in the sunshine and feeling the warmth of its rays on your face? Can you imagine sitting in the presence of Jesus and just allowing his light to shine on you? His healing to soak in to your entire being?

We can feel and experience that now through Jesus, and I encourage you to take time to sit in the sunshine of Christ’s healing and love.

We can also look forward to the day when our healing will be complete and we will be physically raised in Christ with perfect bodies in a perfect world, in perfect relationship with God our Heavenly Father. We will be like calves who have spent all winter, the only life they’ve ever known, in a stall. When the farmer comes at the start of spring to release them out to their pasture, they have no real understanding of what awaits them, but when they get there, they jump and leap and run for sheer and pure joy! We can only speculate about the beauty of heaven and eternity with God, the trinity. But we have this assurance that we will “go out leaping like calves from the stall” when we get there!

So take delight in the Lord, soak up his rays of healing, bask in His warmth and His promises and look forward to the age to come when our troubles and trials and challenges will be so worthless and forgotten that we will simply walkover them without even realising, like ‘ashes under our feet.’

And here’s a video of some calves to brighten your day! https://youtu.be/78bsWTpqA9o