I thank God that He came to the depths of my despair to rescue me. He didn’t holler at me from above to jump higher, to try harder, or to hold on tighter to some invisible rope, He came willingly and sat with me in my dungeon (a dungeon I helped create I might add) even though He is The King. He didn’t just prop a ladder up either and say here you go start climbing, and by the way good luck. Although I imagine there are countless victims of well intentioned pastors, teachers, priests or what have you that have portrayed Him this way. The fact that Jesus came in the first place ought to be enough to refute that portrayal of Him but when you separate the message of the gospel from the heart of the One who is its author that is quite honestly what you end up with.
Not only did God come to earth through Jesus to rescue us He came to reveal Himself and His heart in a way I had never known before. Through the ongoing unveiling of Himself to my heart He gave me the ability to perceive His presence with me on an ongoing basis. I must admit there have been times when the goodness of who He really is has seemed “too good to be true”.
As Brennan Manning shares in his book Abba’s Child, “Fearing that I would miss the divinity of Jesus, I distanced myself from His humanity, like an ancient worshiper shielding my eyes from the Holy of Holies. My uneasiness betrays a strange hesitancy of belief, an uncertain apprehension of a remote Deity, rather than intimate confidence in a personal Savior”.
Thankfully for me Jesus was not put off by my apprehension or hesitancy nor did He force himself on me as the gods of other religions might. He is a gentleman and as such patiently waited and gently wooed me allowing me to slowly embrace the truth of who He is as His faithfulness, steadfastness and refusal to be put off by me refuted all the lies and deceptions of Him I had embraced for many years as truth, forming a religion of duty and form without any real passion for the One who had come to save.
I once asked Him, “Why do you keep pursuing me, why don’t you just give up and go on”? His reply was, “Because I know you will eventually let me catch you”. Sometimes it is just that way. Even though we may be all grown up, we still like the idea of someone wanting us enough to chase us, much like a father would chase his child, and even though the child runs, deep inside at the same time they want to get caught because they want to know that the one chasing them is doing so because they believe they are worth the pursuit.
As I embraced the truth of who Jesus is He lifted me up to be seated with Him in heavenly places. Embracing the humanity of Jesus and the reality that He believes we are worth the pursuit enables us to surrender to His authority as Christ and allows the kingdom of God to come.
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