turned.

"...whose weakness was turned to strength..."

A gem tucked into the middle of Hebrews 11:34.

The writer tells us he doesn't have time to say more about Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets. He doesn't have a minute to tell of how, through faith, they conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained promised glory. About how they shut the mouths of lions, and quenched the flames, and escaped the sword. He doesn't have time to tell us of all those faithful whose weakness was turned to strength.

What does he have time for? What does he tell us? What's important?

He tells us that "All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance."

Abel, and Enoch, and Noah, and Abraham, and Jacob, and Joseph, and Moses, and Rahab, and Gideon, and Barak, and Samson, and Jephthah, and David, Samuel, and the prophets--they all only saw the promise from a distance. They lived, and fought, and loved and struggled, far from the glory they'd been promised. Because God had planned something better for us, so that together, with them, with heroes and warriors and prophets, we would all be made perfect in His sight, with one sacrifice for all of time.

How entirely, and breathlessly stunning that our weakness, our Weakness, our humanity, is made into strength by that one sacrifice. That in the faith of those who hadn't yet seen the Savior, we find ourselves brought to understand the vision of our own faith.

Their faith was made strong by hope in a remedy for their un-ending sacrifice. Ours has witnessed that remedy. We know the full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice that would bind us all.

My weakness is made strength not in becoming the fullest representation of humanity--the strongest, or smartest, or the best--but in most fully reflecting the glory of divinity, the reality of my own immortality, of His own image.

That's love. His overwhelming love for me is what I am to reflect, and when I don't, if I don't have it, I'm nothing. No matter the successes of my humanity.

My weakness is made over into His strength. That is to say, His love--the fulfillment of the sacrifice that ended the sacrifices.

Outrageous.