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MOMENTS OF GRACE – Under His wings

By David Woodbury

There is something in the human soul that yearns for a tangible communion with our Creator God. As God walked in the Garden of Eden and sought communion with Adam and Eve, He still longs for that same intimacy with us. Sometimes it takes us by surprise, like a peaceful sunrise over the bay, yet other times it comes as a response to the yearning of our own heart and soul.

In today’s Army where the mercy seat is utilised for various reasons: to pick up a stone, write on a piece of paper etc. I’ve sometimes wondered if we might miss those precious moments of grace which we once knew around the mercy seat.

For numerous Salvationists, the mercy seat holds a pivotal and treasured place in their spiritual pilgrimage. For many of us, it was a place of a childhood encounter with Jesus and because of it our relationship with Him has grown over the years and its sacredness has never left us. For me, it was at eight years of age in a decision Sunday meeting that I first knelt there and found my heart strangely warmed, an experience that is still tangible in my memory today.

I have found that the Bible indelibly confirms that here is the place where we can meet with God in a unique and deeply spiritual way.  You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold … Then make two
cherubim from hammered gold, and place them on the two ends of the mercy seat … The cherubim will face each other and look down on the mercy seat. With their wings spread above it, they will protect it. … I will meet with you there and talk to you from above the mercy seat between the gold cherubim that hover over the Ark of the Covenant. (Exodus 25 – NLT)

We have often taken the phrase under His wings to refer to the wings of the mother hen with the symbol of God as our protector. It may well be that there is another explanation. In Psalm 61:4 the writer cries out to God: Let me live forever in your sanctuary [the resting place of the Ark], safe beneath the shelter of your wings!  For me, to be under His wings is rich with the meaning and import of the Ark with its mercy seat, between the wings of the cherubim’s where God promises: … I will meet with you there and talk to you.

In 1998 the International Spiritual Life Commission called on Salvationists to recognise the wide understanding of the mercy seat that God has given to the Army; to rejoice that Christ uses this means of grace to confirm his presence; and to ensure that its spiritual benefits are fully explored in every corps and Army centre.

Perhaps one day we might just recapture the immeasurable significance and the rich spirituality of The Salvation Army mercy seat.

Please listen to this video clip on YouTube and recapture something the sacredness of the mercy seat experience. May it be a moment of grace for you!

https://youtu.be/fXH6yjvU1Hw


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