The One Who Lifts You Up

by HJS

Karl Crowe tells the story: A missionary Bible translator came across a portion of Scripture that had already been translated into the language she was working on. She noticed that the word idinide had been used for the English word Savior. The word literally means "picker upper" or "one who picks up something." She thought, "This is not the right word!"

Then one day a woman gave birth to a child in the tribe where she was ministering. She was asked to visit the mother and the newborn and be the idinide or the "picker upper." She went and found a newborn baby boy lying on the jungle floor and the mother lying in a hammock above the tiny little infant.

The mother repeated the request that had already been made, asking her to be the "picker upper." "What am I suppose to do?" she asked. The mother said, "You pick up and wash the baby." She got a can and went to a nearby stream and brought water, cleaning the little dark-eyed baby, making him as presentable as possible.

"Now what do I do?" asked the missionary. "Take the baby to the village and present him to his father." the mother replied. She found the father and informed him that he had a newborn son.

When the mission was completed, she began to understand why the word idinide had been used for Savior. No finer word picture could be used to show what Jesus does when he finds you: picks you up, cleans you up, then cuts the umbilical cord that binds you to your old sinful nature, and finally brings you to the Father and says, "This is your newly adopted son; I gave My life to bring him into our family!"

Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.   PSALM 43:5