Landing

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

-Matthew 11:28-30


I have been studying the hands of Jesus these past few says. I have read books, searched the Bible and meditated on the gravity of His caring and His compassion. For days I have focused on how Christ's constant reaching pose should instruct my life and my ministry. I set out creating a series of paintings of people with radical faith like the gouche of Mother Teresa that I posted yesterday. As I draw these figures, I get a window into who they are. I pray for the Holy Spirit to impart in me the good lessons of these people's service and sacrifice.

But then, the heavier meaning of Christ's compassion hit me. Jesus was personal. Jesus didn't enter a town and wave His hand and heal everyone at once and stroll away. No! He called everyone to Him. He took them aside, sometimes literal holding their and as they went. He carried the ill and the dying. He spoke to the blind and the sick. Jesus wanted to look these people in the eye and heal them because He is a very personal God who wants to heal and save and comfort....

So while we, as Christ-followers must be like Jesus, the bigger message is that Jesus is calling for us to come to HIM and rest on Him. He wants to touch US! He wants to Heal us! He wants to save us!

Life is often hard. We find ourselves in moments of pain. We find grief washing over us, threatening to pull us under. We face odds bigger than mountains and we start to lose hope. But Jesus is no stranger to sorrow. Whatever we face in life, whatever challenge, whatever illness or odds, Jesus has been there. He was walked the walk. He knows pain and suffering. When we are down He has compassion on us.

What a radical concept. We look at the God of Everything, and we see such tenderness, such mercy and such compassion.

Jesus was gentle and humble in heart. He had mercy in his heart. And gentleness in his touch. A man with such mercy and compassion is a place to go to for rest. Foe comfort. To collapse upon. I think it is significant that Jesus described his Spirit as "Counselor" (John 15:26). Ever think about what that implies? It implies that we need one! It implies that the essence of His Spirit is compassionate and caring and understanding. We can weep with Him. Collapse upon Him. Know that He knows and feels and weeps alongside us.

God In the Flesh
Don Everts
p107

Friends, I am a lover of David's Psalms. David describes the all-powerful, uncontainable powerful GOD that surrounds and has control. He is solid and He is unshakeable. His truth is like standing on a mountaintop. He is a fortress and a tower of safety because He is unbreakable. How wonderful is the irony that this strong tower, this solid rock, this mighty, mighty God also has tender hands? How beautiful to see this God coming down and carried sons to their mothers and healing the sick with a touch of His hands? How awesome is it to know that He is there, calling us to come to Him now and lay down our burdens and rest on Him. It is a tender, compassionate landing... But it is solid, sure and safe.


For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
-Hebrews 4:15-16

I love my Jesus. I love his strong arm and His gentle hands. I humble myself at His feet. Yes I will serve as He did. But I will never run from the fact that I am just as broken as the crippled woman, I am just as sick as the leper, I am just as blind as the men on the side of the road. I am just as in need of His loving hand to come touch me and make me whole again.

Jesus, you are my rescue. I lay all I have down at your feet. I give you my talents for service but I also call for your mercy on me. Heal me, save me, renew me. Make me workable clay for your purpose. AMEN!