Day of Praise

Sa, Nov 3 "Day of Praise"

But Jesus came and touched them. "Get up," he said. "Don't be afraid." When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus. - Matthew 17:7-8

I love life.

And the older I get, the more I understand why Jesus says the greatest command is to love God with all ya got and to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-39). God and your neighbor. They're what makes life lovable.

For whatever else we might believe or think or hope is in the everlasting heaven, we can be sure that there will be two things: God and, by God's grace, people.

Yep, God and people. They're what makes life lovable.

I so love my three kids. My parents. My three siblings and their families. My church family. My Day of Praise friendships. My neighborhood friends.

So blessed.

I stop by CVS on the way to work most mornings to check my blood pressure in that little machine next to the pharmacy section. Usually my blood pressure's a little higher than I want when I first check it. So then I take a breath, close my eyes, and imagine the faces of a few very specific people. Different people each day. It's amazing how their faces calm me. And my blood pressure.

But God, through today's Bible verses, invites us to recognize that, as great and calming as all those people can be, God has sent us His only Son, Jesus. And Jesus comes to us and touches us and, if we need it, picks us up and speaks to us, saying, "Don't be afraid."

And it's so divine and heavenly and spirit-filled that we, like the disciples long ago, are given to look up and see no one except Jesus.

So I close my eyes again, and I picture Jesus, the Good Shepherd. I can see that he's led me and the other sheep to a sloping green pasture with woods far to the right. The green pasture slopes down into a lake of still waters, so still, in fact, that the moon makes a glassy smooth runway of light that only stops at the shoreline at the exact spot from which the Good Shepherd is watching us. He has a strong and yet gentle smile on his face. I can see it, even with his back to the light, because there's an aura around him. Not from the moon behind him. But from the love within him.

So he glows.

And my blood pressure drops to what, for me, are ridiculously low (read, "calm") numbers.

And I know the other sheep are there. And I love the other sheep. They're my three kids. My parents. My three siblings and their families. My church family. My Day of Praise friendships. My neighborhood friends. And I even sense some enemies with whom the Shepherd has brought reconciliation.

But it's like we're all in a trance. A mesmerized bliss. We just can't take our eyes off of Jesus.

It's like heaven.

It probably is.

But it's now. Before we die.

For us all.

Together.

Because, in His presence, we all love life.
And the older we get, the more we understand why Jesus says the greatest command is to love God with all ya got and to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-39).

God and your neighbor.

They're what makes life lovable.

And because of Jesus we can see both of them, God and people, in a lot more clear and calming way.

Close your eyes. And see.

Praise God!

Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson