I just had to see. I had heard or, more accurately, read texts and Facebook posts and messages. I knew because we had prepared for this moment, had prepared him to be independent and capable and a problem-solver. I knew that he was fine, that he was learning and growing and making his way in the world. I knew that, didn’t doubt it in the least. Truly.
Yet, I had to see. There was that funny corner of my soul that ran rampant with doubts and fears. There was that suspicion that maybe he wasn’t telling us everything, that the carefully constructed facade was hiding a deeper hurt and a sense of abandonment. And once your mind starts down those side streets, there’s no telling what cul-de-sacs you will pull into. So, I had to see.
It was time for my annual fall planning retreat. A time when I go away to pray and think and listen to what God would have me do as Lead Pastor of Aldersgate, and oddly enough the conference I usually piggy-back upon wasn’t happening this year. So, I was not tied in to a specific week. Looking a bit further, I realized that DePauw’s Parent’s weekend was scheduled for a weekend when we had already decided long ago that Chris would be preaching. So, I made the plans and penciled in a chance to go and see.
We are working our way through the Gospel of John in my Wednesday Night Bible Study class (6pm in room 200 - come and join us, we’ve just begun!) We were reading the part about where Jesus calls his disciples and noticed that in John’s version there is a variety of techniques that he uses, but that one of those is a simple “Come and See.”
As if he knew that sometimes words on their own don’t work, you’ve got to see. You’ve got to touch. And that is the blessing.
The passage this week is one where one preacher admitted that Jesus becomes almost embarrassingly tactile. Instead of the reserved, aloof teacher of wisdom and discipline, a very different Jesus emerges in these verses. Yet, they don’t strike us as odd in the least. They have become instrumental in our own understanding of who Jesus is and who we are called to be.
You remember this scene, I am sure.
Mark 10:13-16 People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. 14 But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, "Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. 15 Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it." 16 And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.
This is the Jesus we know and love best of all, I believe. But we have to realize what a radical departure this action was from normal behavior. No one with any authority or power or standing in society in this period of history would even have time for children. It just wasn’t done. And yet here is Jesus, not only allowing children to be in his presence, but taking them up in his arms and blessing them. Almost embarrassing, at least I am sure that some - like the disciples themselves - were scandalized by this behavior.
Yet, Jesus didn’t care. What he cared about was blessing. Was welcoming. Was making sure that everyone understood the value of those of whom he said “let them come.” It seems to me, or at least in my current mindset, that Jesus was trying to be concrete. Trying to help his hearers see something of the glory and the wonder of the Kingdom and so he grabbed the nearest visual aid he could find.
Come and see, he could have said. See through these eyes the wonder of God’s creation. Come and see the needs and the opportunities to serve. Come and see how we can live out the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves.
And then he gathered them up. As if giving confirmation. So that we could see that the best way to rid oneself of doubts and fears and suspicions and animosity is by getting outside of yourself long enough to bless a child. To talk to them, to listen to them, to experience the world through their eyes.
I just had to see. My mind was rampant with all sorts of problems and difficulties and emptiness. But when I laid eyes on him, my son in college, all was well. When I looked through his eyes the world looked different. Sure there were struggles to be faced, but there were possibilities as well. Sure he had left behind the comfortable and familiar, but he was making his way into a future of his own. I had to see and in that seeing I knew blessing.
To such as these, he said. To such as these belongs the kingdom. Oh, to be gathered onto that lap, to feel that blessing. Maybe that’s what he meant, not being childish or even child-like, but being blessed. And the only way to be blessed is to get out of yourself for a while.
I had to see and wanted to bless. And what I found was that I was blessed in return.
Shalom,
Derek
Yet, I had to see. There was that funny corner of my soul that ran rampant with doubts and fears. There was that suspicion that maybe he wasn’t telling us everything, that the carefully constructed facade was hiding a deeper hurt and a sense of abandonment. And once your mind starts down those side streets, there’s no telling what cul-de-sacs you will pull into. So, I had to see.
It was time for my annual fall planning retreat. A time when I go away to pray and think and listen to what God would have me do as Lead Pastor of Aldersgate, and oddly enough the conference I usually piggy-back upon wasn’t happening this year. So, I was not tied in to a specific week. Looking a bit further, I realized that DePauw’s Parent’s weekend was scheduled for a weekend when we had already decided long ago that Chris would be preaching. So, I made the plans and penciled in a chance to go and see.
We are working our way through the Gospel of John in my Wednesday Night Bible Study class (6pm in room 200 - come and join us, we’ve just begun!) We were reading the part about where Jesus calls his disciples and noticed that in John’s version there is a variety of techniques that he uses, but that one of those is a simple “Come and See.”
As if he knew that sometimes words on their own don’t work, you’ve got to see. You’ve got to touch. And that is the blessing.
The passage this week is one where one preacher admitted that Jesus becomes almost embarrassingly tactile. Instead of the reserved, aloof teacher of wisdom and discipline, a very different Jesus emerges in these verses. Yet, they don’t strike us as odd in the least. They have become instrumental in our own understanding of who Jesus is and who we are called to be.
You remember this scene, I am sure.
Mark 10:13-16 People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. 14 But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, "Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. 15 Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it." 16 And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.
This is the Jesus we know and love best of all, I believe. But we have to realize what a radical departure this action was from normal behavior. No one with any authority or power or standing in society in this period of history would even have time for children. It just wasn’t done. And yet here is Jesus, not only allowing children to be in his presence, but taking them up in his arms and blessing them. Almost embarrassing, at least I am sure that some - like the disciples themselves - were scandalized by this behavior.
Yet, Jesus didn’t care. What he cared about was blessing. Was welcoming. Was making sure that everyone understood the value of those of whom he said “let them come.” It seems to me, or at least in my current mindset, that Jesus was trying to be concrete. Trying to help his hearers see something of the glory and the wonder of the Kingdom and so he grabbed the nearest visual aid he could find.
Come and see, he could have said. See through these eyes the wonder of God’s creation. Come and see the needs and the opportunities to serve. Come and see how we can live out the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves.
And then he gathered them up. As if giving confirmation. So that we could see that the best way to rid oneself of doubts and fears and suspicions and animosity is by getting outside of yourself long enough to bless a child. To talk to them, to listen to them, to experience the world through their eyes.
I just had to see. My mind was rampant with all sorts of problems and difficulties and emptiness. But when I laid eyes on him, my son in college, all was well. When I looked through his eyes the world looked different. Sure there were struggles to be faced, but there were possibilities as well. Sure he had left behind the comfortable and familiar, but he was making his way into a future of his own. I had to see and in that seeing I knew blessing.
To such as these, he said. To such as these belongs the kingdom. Oh, to be gathered onto that lap, to feel that blessing. Maybe that’s what he meant, not being childish or even child-like, but being blessed. And the only way to be blessed is to get out of yourself for a while.
I had to see and wanted to bless. And what I found was that I was blessed in return.
Shalom,
Derek
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