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24601

Does that number 24601 spark any particular feelings, memories or remembrances?

At first glance that number reminds me of the childhood cheer we used to say after Little League games... "2 4 6 8 who do we appreciate... (then yell the opposing team's name)". Perhaps it's the population of a town nearby. Maybe it's a statistic that represents the number of people who bought iPhones in the last hour...

Or maybe it's a label...

For Jean Valjean in the play/movie Les Miserables it is his prison number. In prison Jean Valjean has no name, no identity, no sense of personhood. For nineteen winters strong his captor, his corrections officer, his personal nemesis and pursuer Javert has called Jean Valjean not by his God given name but rather by this number... this label.

Then Jean Valjean is set free and then breaks parole. Soon he has an incredible redemptive encounter and becomes a successful businessman, a strong, caring, loving and faithful follower and practicioner of the Christian faith. His life changes in all ways.

But not in the eys of Javert. Jean Valjean is still prisoner 24601 and Javert pursues him for year upon year as Prisoner 24601 who broke parole and who has not changed, who cannot change, who will not change... after all you are what you are and you can never change.

My iWitness...

What label do you carry around?

What label hangs around your neck? What label have you allowed yourself or others to tattoo on your forehead? Athlete? Nerd? Neat freak? Overweight? Obsessive Compulsive? Loser? Divorced? Single? Adulterer? Lakers fan? Workaholic? Alcoholic? Successful? Type A personality? The list could go on and on.

What is sad about labels is that over time we learn to accept them. The label becomes the lense in which we see ourselves. Although the "bling" on these labels has tarnished and spoiled we continue to wear them and try to polish them and live with them and dress them up because after all I am what I am and I can never change.

Is that what we believe? Is this what we practice? Is this how we live out our lives?

The scriptures tell us that in Christ "We are a new creation! The old has passed away. Behold! The new has come... For freedom Christ has set us free!" (2 Corinthians 5 and Galatians 5)

In Christ the labels slip off! In Christ you are free! Free! Do we even begin to understand what that means? I wonder myself sometimes...

We have been made new! We don't have to stand where we have fallen... Yesterday is a closing door and we don't have to live there anymore.

In Christ the new labels never tarnish, never fade...Child of God, Son and Daughter of the King, Forgiven, Freed, Redeemed, Saved, Loved, Accepted...

In Christ we are no longer a number or a label. We have been claimed and redeemed by name.
"Fear not! For I have redeemed you; I have called you by name. You are mine" says the Lord.
"You are mine!" And perhaps that's the best label of all...

I am the Lord's

Fear not and Laugh Often!
David!