Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart (Deuteronomy 10:16 KJV).

One day as I glanced through a magazine, an article caught my eye. It was about a little girl who had been born with her heart outside her body, totally exposed. I shuddered at the thought, and then paused as I remembered the verse in Deuteronomy I had been puzzling over. I’d had the feeling that the solution to my recent numbness and inability to give and receive love lay in that verse. However, the picture it produced of a heart being stripped of its protective covering was too frightening to consider. A person could be seriously, even mortally, wounded that way!

Now as I studied this article, it seemed God was telling me that while the exposed heart of this child was an abnormality, for His children, it is a spiritual necessity. If we put up walls to protect our hearts, we will keep out not only those who might hurt us but also those who want to give us love. We’ll never be able to have the kind of loving relationships we need until we choose to take down our walls.

 Since that day, I have discovered that only by forgiving past hurts and choosing to remain vulnerable, am I truly able to circumcise the foreskin of my heart.

 Forgive us, Father, for putting up walls to protect ourselves because we don’t trust you to protect us. Amen.

(Devotional from Homespun Faith, Reflections from the Seasons of Life, copyright 2014 Daisy Beiler Townsend. Available as paperback or ebook: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Xulon Press. There are Links on this website on the Where to Buy Homespun Faith and Sarah’s Legacy page.  Locally at Fresh Grounds, M & M Grocery, Leanna’s Books, Penn Alps in Grantsville, Maryland, or from me 724-373-8445 or donaisy@neo.rr.com.)