Thin(k) Again

“

In Nazareth He was known only as Jesus, the son of Joseph. You can be sure He was respected in the community He was good with his hands. He had many friends. He was a favorite among the children. He could tell a good joke and had a habit of filling the air with contagious laughter.

I wonder if He wanted to stay. He could do a good job here in Nazareth. Settle down. Raise a family. Be a civic leader.

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 kept his mouth shut. He could have ignored the call or at least postponed it. And had He chosen to stay, who would’ve 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. Some blank with boredom. From the face of Adam to the face of the infant born somewhere in the 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 that carpentry shop in Nazareth was your voice. Your silent prayers uttered on tear-stained 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.

He left because of you.

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• February 20, 2011, 10:30pm

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