That Jesus

"God would do that for you."

I MADE A rabbit trail off the main path, choosing to follow the thoughts in my head, and eventually ran out of places to roam. Staring ahead, I decided to circle back and discovered the only one who’d moved in all that time was me. God was right where I’d left Him. The pictures given from my doubts had drawn Him differently. Suddenly, I was not in the right place, and He wanted me to move. He went from patient and kind to hard and demanding. Except, now that I’ve found His footsteps again, I see I was wrong.

It took me three or four times like this to wake up and realize I could keep Him the same. He is walking with me, before me and behind me, teaching me the better way. It is human-things, darkness nipping at my ears, that causes me to think wrong. We are all like this, and the church hasn’t helped. The image I had of God before He spoke to me was church-driven and all wrong. Their hearts are right, the people in the church, but once you’ve seen “end of trail” you can’t walk the same. Once you’ve heard Jesus, you can’t believe how real He is. You can’t believe how stupid you are.

There are things you will never say when you meet Him. Most everything that depicts Him. Go to any free photo website and all the pictures imagined of Him aren’t right. Mostly they’re white people, and Jesus is a second century Jew. But I’ve seen others from mountaineer Jesus to 1970s dude Jesus. The fact is, the most trustworthy image of Him I’ve been given came from my grandfather before his death. He had a vision and said, “Jesus is beautiful.” That’ll do.

And I can tell you He’s humble, He’s funny, He’s kind. He’s not arrogant at all, not judgmental. He is exactly who you think He is when you’re on your face worshiping the One you know died for you. That moment, where there’s tears in your eyes, and you can’t believe God would do that for you. He’s that Jesus.

Not concerned with having all our i’s dotted and our t’s crossed. We’re picking each other apart for skin color, doctrinal beliefs, styles of songs and prayers. He’s not worried about any of that. While we get onto each other for crossing and uncrossing our legs, for wearing shorts, for not using hymnals, and a thousand other broken church rules, He’s smiling, His hands out, wanting us to put it all down. Stop worrying if you’ve broken something and just rejoice that you’ve gained Him.

That’s enough.

Mark 1:16-20
“Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. (17) And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. (18) And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him. (19) And when he had gone a little further thence, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the ship mending their nets. (20) And straightway he called them: and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him.”

Photo by Jeremy Yap on Unsplash


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com