You Are Mine

Imagine being in the halls of your high school again, and there's a girl that everyone is talking about. She has a bad reputation of being with numerous guys. They harass her and call her bad names. They taunt her to the point where she's standing in a large group of people mocking her, and she's crying. She's so overwhelmed and falls to the ground. The crowd gets quiet and she looks up to see a man walking toward her, but he kneels down to get eye level with her so he's not looking down on her. He tells her she's forgiven. He begins to tell the group of kids that if they haven't ever done anything wrong, lie, steal, adultery, they can stay, otherwise leave the girl alone from now on... All sins are equal.

This is my Jesus.

There's a similar story to this in the Bible, I just decided to put it in modern terms. Teenagers can sometimes seem more cruel than adults. I know, I've lived it. This particular story that's in the gospel is one of my favorites. It can be applied  to our lives in so many different ways. We are such divinely favored creatures of God's heart, that He gave His son as a gift to us. So that we can be forgiven and have direct access to talk and to be loved unconditionally.

There's another story I heard a long time ago, and it's about a family who was forced to make a heartbreaking decision. This family was driving to go on vacation and they were listening to some fun music on the radio and jamming out. All the sudden it switched to an alert saying that a huge outbreak of an exotic disease has spread, and everyone needed to get to the nearest clinic or hospital to be tested. The family was just of three, Dad, Mom and their eight year old son. They found a hospital and it was already packed, the lines were outside to the parking lot. When they finally made it in, the mom and dad had tested positive but the doctor told them their son was fine. They were going to run some more tests just in case. So they waited and some hours later the doctor came back out and said they had made a discovery, and asked to talk to them in his office. He said their son was more than good he was amazing, and they found that his blood was somehow an antivirus for this disease, and they needed it. The parents were shocked yet relieved, and said they would agree but how much blood would this possibly require? Suddenly the doctor's face was overcome with grief, they would need all of it to the point of their son soon being deceased. The parents were devastated and had to make a decision to either die along with millions of people infected and let their son live, or help everyone and literally make a huge sacrifice. After hours of heartbreak and tears, the parents finally had come to a decision. They chose to save the people. When they finally got to see their son for the last time, they explained everything to him and he was scared but he was brave and willing. He clung to his parents and didn't want to let go in those last moments but they all finally said their goodbyes.

If you haven't figured it out already this story was an example of Jesus. In those last moments before the guards came to arrest him, he pleaded with God for another way, but there wasn't one. In a way, the story I just told was a lighter version. Jesus was beaten numerous times, stabbed, spit on, he even had his beard pulled from his face. Jesus was tortured to death. Even in his last minutes while his lifeless body hung on a cross he was still mocked. For me. He did that for me. 

Sometimes it's hard for us though, we go through times where we feel like He's not there or not listening. Since we weren't alive in the Bible times and didn't personally witness anything, sometimes we just don't want to believe it all actually happened. We are just going through the motions of this life alone. I can't tell you how many times I've thought about this. He never fails to reassure me every time though. I recently posted that I was in a rut and I desperately needed some breakthrough time, and I got it. Sometimes we feel like we have the tools to be a better Christian and we just need to take the reins and do it ourselves, we forget to just sit down and let Jesus teach us. I finally got my time to sit down with Him and this is what He said to me:

"Stop running like mad because you don't know the music; lay in the wild grass while the stars dance instead. Forget what they've told you about Me and stop thinking it's something you have to perform. You could spend your entire life doing that and never know any more of Me at all. You'll miss the point, miss the beauty, and miss the sky I painted above you. It's a beautiful night to realize what it's really like to be loved.

Stop chasing the song, child, and let Me teach you to sing." 

-Angie Smith from Chasing God