In 1958, a different Hurricane Helene smashed into the East Coast. I was 9 years old, and I clearly remember it because it caused an electrical outage in our New England town, which shut off the freezers at Lynch’s Pharmacy, which were now full of melting ice cream. School was canceled that day, which added to the delicious blessing of free ice cream given out by the store. Soon we neighborhood kids were lined up to each receive a half gallon of very soft ice cream and a plastic spoon. We sat on the sidewalk and ate as much as we could. Thank God for hurricanes! we thought.
As happiness can come to children from melting ice cream, spiritual joy comes from the melting of our hearts when we experience the gifts of forgiveness and being enfolded into God’s family as an adopted child of God. Many believe the gospel but never fully trust it. We all want God’s help, but something deeper in our hearts must happen to us to be able to want God’s hold. We must melt!
We never would have had the opportunity to eat that ice cream for free if it had not been melting in the store’s freezer. The pharmacy’s financial loss became our happiness. Our opportunity to receive the joyful gift of the gospel is through faith in Jesus’ pain and loss. Does that biblical truth melt your heart?
When the 2004 film The Passion of the Christ came out, many refused to see it because they’d heard that the depiction of gore was overwhelming. And it was! In the movie, Jesus’ body is ripped open, and viewers may be inclined to cover their eyes. Yet when I saw it, I was overwhelmed but not repulsed. I left the theater feeling deeply loved by God in a way I had never felt before. My heart melted when I saw how much Jesus suffered to pay the wages of my sin. I saw how much love Jesus must have for me to succumb to such a torturous death to pardon me.
To be a Christian, John Calvin said, is “to live a life of self-denial” because the essence of sin is selfishness. We see that selfishness in everyone. In my work as a marriage counselor, self-denial is always necessary for reconciliation, but it doesn’t come easily. Forgiveness requires self-denial by the victim. That is not easy either. It takes melted hearts to reconcile a relationship. And to have a heart that can forgive a betraying spouse first takes a melted heart before God.
The most important task of the church is to cultivate melted hearts in those it reaches and teaches. The Lord’s Supper is one opportunity to remember and believe, with a melted heart, that the body of Christ was broken for the forgiveness of all our sins. How we commemorate Holy Week is another opportunity. The drama of what happened to Jesus on Good Friday should melt us.
How do we become so “poor in spirit” that we can feel the freedom of the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:3)? Ultimately, it is the task of the Holy Spirit to bring about a melted heart. But you can pray and ask for it with assurance. “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,” Jesus says, “how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13). So pray for a spiritual melting. It’s much better than ice cream!
About the Author
Ken Nydam is a retired CRC minister now working as a licensed mental health/marriage counselor at Hope Way Counseling Services. (hopewaycounselingservices.com) in Byron Center and Allegan, Mich. He attends The River CRC in Allegan.
