by Pastor Douglas Brauner

Attaching the Strings.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

In a small dungeon like room at the Fortress Hohensalzburg in Salzburg, Austria, is a museum dedicated to marionettes. I couldn’t help but think of the Sound of Music when I visited this museum and the von Trapp children putting on a play with their marionettes for the baroness.

I have never tried operating a marionette, but I have a feeling it takes plenty of skill for a puppeteer to tell a story pulling the strings of these puppets. The Salzburg Marionette Theater performs full length marionette operas. That must be exhausting.

Who’s pulling your strings?

You might have multiple answers to that question depending on the situation in which you find yourself. It might be a boss, a spouse, a friend, or even an enemy that you believe is pulling your strings and manipulating your life and emotions.

We want to be free of the strings. The problem with being free of the strings is that we end up flat on the floor.

“Now you have been freed from sin and have become God’s slaves. This results in a holy life and, finally, in everlasting life.”
Romans 6:22 God’s Word Translation

Jesus has cut the strings of our slavery to sin. Sin no longer rules over us even it feels like it still does. Jesus did not cut the strings and leave us on ground. Through his sacrifice for us he has tied our strings to himself. And in tying our strings to himself he now leads us with the strings of grace.

This is what Paul means when he writes that the result of Jesus attaching our strings to him is that we now live a holy life. It is in Jesus that we live differently than we have in the past, constantly being reshaped by his love. It is because of our strings being attached to Jesus that we know that we see him face to face.

Copyright Family of Christ Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado