by Cathy Vinson

Recently in the thick of summer, I realized the role of mothering was becoming more binding upon me than even my own child state before God. The demeanor of scolding and correcting was overshadowing my whole countenance. Sternness was becoming the environment I was living within. I asked my husband if he would take our sons for a few hours.

In those hours, I came across the word "remit": to forgive, dismiss, release from. I became aware this was exactly what I was seeking from God: a release, a flight even temporarily from a full-fledged identity, an inner reshuffling that would re-allow the awakening of a right order. Even though it was not exactly an issue of sin's remission, how real it was to me such a touch of reordering was solely dependent upon God.

Isn't this the desired end of all true vacations? The stockbroker, the lawyer, the secretary, teacher all would long to emerge from their 2 weeks at the beach having experienced a "dismissal" from their binding identity and perhaps return as father to their children, etc. What is a manmade attempt to experience by time away at a different spot, I was seeking to find in a few hours. If I could only be touched by Him, I would have the same refreshment as one vacationed.

The Pharisees suspiciously asked Jesus, "Who can remit (forgive) sins but God alone?" Apparently, they realized something. A remitting, a trapdoor of escape swinging away into another realm is only possible through Divinity. Only One Divine can dismiss and forgive.

Therefore, a soul knowing dismissal, remittance and release, with or without the beach, is the most vacationed person there is!

(Hebrews 10:18)