My Race

I was thinking about the man Christ Jesus. You know the man who the Bible says was ordinary, and not exceptionally good looking, thereby calling no attention to Him when He walked into the Temple.

He was a baby, who had to have his diaper changed. He had to be potty- trained and learn how to feed Himself.  He had to be taught how to read and write, how to measure. A carpenter can’t be a carpenter, without some math skills. He ate food and had to eliminate that food. He was exactly like us, EXCEPT without a tendency, a drawing to sin, a sin nature. You know, the propensity of the best to do the wrong thing. And at minimum, to think about doing the wrong thing.

We have the propensity today to put people up on a pedestal, that is until they fall off! They are human, with sin a nature. If you lived with them, I’d bet a peppermint that you wouldn’t like them so much! But Jesus was different, because he had no sin nature to sneak in and spoil relationships.

So I asked myself, would I have followed Him or rejected Him? In His humanity, although perfect, I know His perfection would not have drawn me to Him. So in that respect, no. I would not have, apart from the wooing of the Holy Spirit.

His teachings were a little hard to understand. Speaking stories to illustrate his point. Based on His story telling alone, no I would not have followed Him.

Knowledgeable teachers, who might have shared with me truths from the Word, paired with their knowledge of Him and marrying the two truths, might have caused me to consider, but still apart from the Spirit, I’m sure I would have come up short.

But the undeniable miracles, miracles that no man alive had ever performed, well that would have gotten my attention! I probably would have followed Him after seeing the miracles and then using the other puzzle pieces, (I hope), I would have come to the knowledge of Jesus as Messiah, Savior of the world.

But did He heal solely to prove that He was God? No! He healed because He is love and love cared too much to leave me in this broken state of separation and sin I was born with. Loved me to much to hate me for it. And with the restoration of what should have been, also came restoration of my physical body to God, as exemplified through all the healings, never leaving one who desired it, sick.

Yes, I hope I would have had sense enough to follow Him and I pray He keeps me now until the end, when I pass on, not by some disease, but simply because my race is finished and I have won, never to be separated from my Savior again.

Blessings