|
He saw you and chose to leave
It was time for Jesus to leave. The carpentry shop had been his home, his refuge.
He had come to say good-bye, to smell the sawdust and lumber just one more time.
Life was peaceful here. Life was so safe. Here he had spent countless hours of contentment.
On this dirt floor he had played as a toddler while his father worked.
Here Joseph had taught him how to grip a hammer. And on this workbench he had built his first chair.
It was here that his human hands shaped the wood his divine hands had created.
And it was here that his body matured while his spirit waited for the right moment, the right day.
And now that day had arrived.
I wonder if he wanted to stay. I wonder because I know he had already read the last chapter.
-He knew that the feet that would step out of the safe shadow of the carpentry shop would not rest until they'd been pierced and placed on a Roman cross.
You see, he didn't have to go. -He had a choice. -He could have stayed.
-He could have ignored the call or at least postponed it. And had he chosen to stay, who would have known? Who would have blamed him?
He could have come back as a man in another era when society wasn't so volatile, when religion wasn't so stale, when people would listen better.
He could have come back when crosses were out of style. But his heart wouldn't let him.
If there was hesitation on the part of his humanity, it was overcome by the compassion of his divinity.
His divinity heard the voices.
-His divinity heard the hopeless cries of the poor, the bitter accusations of the abandoned, the dangling despair of those who are trying to save themselves.
And his divinity saw the faces.
Some wrinkled; some weeping; some hidden behind veils; some obscured by fear; some earnest with searching and some blank with boredom.
From the face of Adam to the face of the infant born somewhere in world as you read these words, he saw them all. And you can be sure of one thing.
Among the voices that found their way into the carpentry shop in Nazareth was your voice.
Your silent prayers uttered on tearstained pillows were heard before they were said.
Your deepest questions about death and eternity were answered before they were asked.
And your direst need, your need for a Savior, was met before you ever sinned.
And not only did he hear you, he saw you.
He saw your face aglow the hour you first knew him; He saw your face in shame the hour you first fell.
He saw the same face that looked back at you from this morning's mirror, looked at him.
And it was enough to kill him.
He left because of you.
He laid his security down with his hammer.
He hung tranquility on the peg with his nail apron.
He closed the window shutters on the sunshine of his youth and locked the door on the comfort and ease of anonymity.
Since he could bear your sins more easily than he could bear the thought of your hopelessness, he chose to leave.
It wasn't easy but it was LOVE.
Leaving home and the carpenter shop has never been easy.
EASTER/GOOD FRIDAY 2012- HE SAW YOU AND CHOSE TO LEAVE-Nona Freeman Book Sales/Nona Freeman Fans & Kneemail
|
Linear Mode
