“Who Does God Say I Am?” Part 3 – You Are Embraced!
/Today’s Peace Quotes
“The extent of your consciousness is limited only by your ability to love and to embrace with your love the space around you, and all it contains.” ~ Napoleon Bonaparte
”Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.” ~ Albert Einstein
Any time I preach or lead a group, regardless of age, I start the same way. I’m going to say three short sentences. Please repeat each sentence, with enthusiasm.
God made me. God loves me. God has plans for me.
Neither I nor Anne have ever been pregnant, so everything I know about the subject is based purely on hearsay, random observations, and the preciously little I remember from biology class. With that said, as I read and reread this week’s verses, various “mothering” images came to my mind. This week’s verses seem to take us through the process of creating a new life and nurturing it through adulthood. And even though most of these verses refer to God as a Father figure, all of the images that came into my mind this week were motherly. Maybe it’s Mother’s Day lingering in my head.
From the moment we’re born, God knows everything about us including numbering the hairs on our head. But don’t take Matthew 10:29-31 too literally. Understand the conceptual point of those verses. Compared to us, the people of Jesus’ time had an extremely limited understanding of biology. The concept of those verses is that God knows us down to the smallest and seemingly insignificant detail. But no detail about us is too small for God’s attention.
Someone in our Bible Study group – to which you are all invited: Tuesdays at 6:00 pm – someone with a biology background took this verses’ concept and merged it with modern science to birth this beautiful insight:
“God knows every cell in your body and what’s happening to them, which is comforting since God is the great healer.” With that insight, we can pray boldly and confidently for God’s healing touch which, as a science-oriented person, I believe works in concert with modern medicine.
And no matter how bushy or aerodynamic our heads may be, no matter our height, our weight, our shape, our size, no matter what, God loves us, God wants us, and God will never abandon us.
Well that’s great, but the same words and attitude could apply to your spouse or best friend. But in John 14:18-20, Jesus explains how God goes one step further than any human ever could when Jesus – God in the flesh – says, “I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” Remember, John was a mystic, so he expresses concepts unbound by scientific proof or journalistic facts. John’s point here is that God and humanity are completely intertwined. Let that sink in a bit.
As babies grow and become big enough to explore on their own, Isaiah 41:13 says that God is next to us, holding our hand, saying “Do not fear, I will help you.”
Remember when you were a young child, when you were with your parent, grandparent, or an aunt or uncle. Those words “Don’t be afraid, I will help you” gave us the confidence to leave the safety of our comfort zones and extend ourselves beyond our past achievements. At their best, those same voices were there to continue encouraging us as we repeatedly failed on our way to mastering the skills of walking, running, playing sports and musical instruments, creative writing, public speaking, artistic expression, and so much more.
Sometimes, if we’re lucky, we have high school and college professors or coaches who offer us the same encouragement. All too often, as we enter adulthood, far too many of us lose the ability to offer OR receive these words of encouragement and assistance. These verses encourage us to return to our childlike faith – not childish but childlike faith – and trust God to be our ultimate partner in life.
When we’ve become weary of the process of trusting God as we continually strive to live into our potential, Jesus tells us in Matthew 11:28-30 that God always welcome us to share the burdens of our lives with Him. The metaphor Jesus uses in these verses is the yoke, which when properly setup (so I’m told) is designed to distribute the burden proportionate to each animals’ strength. So when Jesus says, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me…” He’s saying two things:
1 – “I’ll carry some of your burden so you’re not overwhelmed.” That’s grace and mercy in action!
2 – “WE are going to keep going, keep working, keep moving forward together.” There is no “stop and give up” option here. AND the only way we can survive going forward is to let Jesus carry some of our burdens for us. Because of our cultural training and expectations, the greatest burden holding us back that we may need to give Jesus is our pride.
And last but not least, Matthew 7:9-11 tells us that God wants to give us what is best for us if we have the humility to ask. And what’s the best gift of all? Luke 12:22-23,31-32 tells us it’s nothing less than the Kingdom of God – an awareness of God’s presence in and around us; access to that presence, and an invitation to play an active role in sharing that Kingdom with others.
This week, and every week, I urge you to intentionally look for how God is making His presence, the Kingdom of God, active in our lives. Our “fruit card” based on Galatians 5:22-23 reminds us how we can see, hear, and touch God’s presence around us. When you see some of this fruit happening around you, please tell someone. It can be as simple as saying something like this, “You might not recognize it, but your patience, your kindness, your gentleness [whatever applied to the moment] is a tremendous blessing to me and to our community. Thank you!”
You’ll note that I never mentioned God, and I never told them what to believe. But there’s your homework. Look for opportunities to thank someone for being an active part of the Kingdom of God. If and when we do this, God will be holding our hand, guiding us, and working with us to make our community a more peaceful and more joyful place.
And maybe, just maybe, when people see and hear you as an endless fountain of compliments and encouragement, just maybe, they’ll ask you why you’re so different. In doing so, they open the door for you to share a bit about your faith and invite them to experience our faith community.
Amen? Amen!
Today’s readings all focus on our belief that, as our loving creator, God embraces us completely.
NRSV = New Revised Standard Version
NLT = New Living Translation
We Are Seen Matthew 10:30
NRSV
30 And even the hairs of your head are all counted.
NLT
30 And the very hairs on your head are all numbered.
We Are Accepted John 16:27
NRSV
27 for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.
NLT
27 for the Father himself loves you dearly because you love me and believe that I came from God.
We Are Wanted John 14:18
NRSV
18 “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.
NLT
18 No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you.
We Are Welcomed Matthew 11:28
NRSV
28 “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
NLT
28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
We Are Rescued Psalm 91:14
NRSV
14 Those who love me, I will deliver; I will protect those who know my name.
NLT
14 The Lord says, “I will rescue those who love me. I will protect those who trust in my name.
We Are Helped Isaiah 41:13
NRSV
13 For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Do not fear, I will help you.”
NLT
13 For I hold you by your right hand—I, the Lord your God. And I say to you, ‘Don’t be afraid. I am here to help you.
We Are Marked Isaiah 49:15–16
NRSV
15 Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. 16 See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.
NLT
15 “Never! Can a mother forget her nursing child? Can she feel no love for the child she has borne? But even if that were possible, I would not forget you! 16 See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands. Always in my mind is a picture of Jerusalem’s walls in ruins.
We Are Blessed Matthew 7:11
NRSV
11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
NLT
11 So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.
We Are God’s Heir Luke 12:32
NRSV
32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
NLT
32 “So don’t be afraid, little flock. For it gives your Father great happiness to give you the Kingdom.