…and once again we come to Monday, the pauper of days. But as I rolled on to work this morning, it was heartening to see the brilliant full moon shine bright o’erhead, before she finally decided to veil her face. Even then, the light broke through the clouds effortlessly, beautifully. And so my week begins, with a note of wonder, song of grace.
And briefly…much enjoyed my reading this morning. I would like to share a few of my favourite verses – firstly from Exodus:
Now it came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died.
And the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out;
and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God.
So God heard their groaning;
and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
God saw the sons of Israel,
and God took notice of them.
-Exodus 2:23-25
Is that not beautiful? I cannot quite state that anything I’m going through is anywhere near the level of bondage that the children of Israel were in. But it is oh so encouraging to my heart to see how God responds to the sighs and cries of His people. God hears, God remembers, God sees, God takes notice. We may think that God is ignoring us, not promptly answering our pleas and our cries. I mean – seriously, the children of Israel are in bondage for near on four hundred years!! That is not an insignificant length of time – why does God not act sooner? I know not. And sometimes whatever we are suffering through will seem like it is never ending…yet…we need not let our hearts be troubled. Because God does remember His promises to us and He surely does see our plight and hear our cries. And God will surely take notice and stretch out His mighty hand on our behalf. Not in our time, perhaps. But God’s time is sweeter still. Let us remember that and let our hearts’ cries never cease to be raised to the God who hears.
And secondly from the magnificent book of John…
Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world,
He loved them to the end.
-John 13:1
…and is that not truly beautiful as well? Jesus knew His time was short. He knew His time was at hand. And He whose love is incomprehensible did truly love His disciples deeply. And did His love for them wane as His hour of trial approached? Oh most certainly not – Jesus loved His disciples to the end. He loved them infinitely. He loved them completely and perfectly, as only the Son of God can. And to manifest His love to them…he got up from the dinner table and washed His followers’ dirty feet. A shocking display of love, acting not as their Teacher and Lord(which He was!), but as their Servant. And so this Servant who was about to suffer greatly did kneel before His disciples and love them greatly. I can imagine them being so shocked that silence fell around the table. I don’t know that for certain, but I imagine it to be so. And then when He comes to Peter…Peter responds as only Peter can – “Never shall You wash my feet!” But when Jesus responds that Peter shall have no part of Him if He is not washed by Christ…then Peter again responds as only Peter can – “…then wash me completely, feet, head, hands all!” Jesus gently reminds Him that he who has bathed need only wash his feet and truly, “…you are clean.” What a joy to hear that from Jesus. You are clean! Oh joyous thought – we that are redeemed by the blood of Christ are truly clean. Forever. And we can read about this moment where Jesus acted so sacrificially for His followers…so also ought we to lay aside our pride and love one another. If Jesus could serve His disciples in such a way…how could we not long to serve each our brothers and sisters daily, always. What joy would fill our hearts to act as our Saviour?? What joy does fill our hearts to know our Lord!!
And one last verse to close…truly lovely words:
“In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in Me, and I in you.
He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me;
and he who loves Me
will be loved by My Father,
and I will love Him
and will disclose Myself to him.”
-Jesus Christ, John 14:20-21
We of whose those words are true…Jesus reveals Himself to us in pure love. What awe and wonder! We are loved by God the Father. We are loved by God the Son. We abide in Christ and Christ abides in us. The Holy Spirit of God dwells in us. We are loved by God. We truly know God as He reveals Himself to us. We are truly known by God. We are loved. This, my friends, is why we can be full of grace and full of peace. Forever and always.
