Did You Ever Wonder About People?

ValMay ♦ February 12, 2013 ♦ 3 Comments

Yesterday, Monday, February 11, I turned 60 years old. I can hardly believe it myself, but I am. I am very aware that I am beginning the winter of my journey and I have been reflecting on that a lot. 🙂

I am reading through the New Testament in the Message this year, this week in Chapter 26 of Matthew, and I am, once again, astounded by the priests and religious leaders who are supposed to know better. They are ones to whom everyone should look up to and strive to emulate; the ones who should have great wisdom and should be beyond reproach. Yet, here they seem like scary, small men of little or no character. Scheming men who are planning the death of Christ – and all this with the blessing of the leaders in charge! What great examples they are, eh????

Then, we have Jesus’ disciples who get all bent out of joint because a woman poured expensive perfume on Jesus. It says in Mt. 26:9 “They were furious.”

Add to all of this, Judas, one of Jesus’ disciples, who traveled with Jesus, heard His teachings, and who had seen everything He was and everything He did and still had the audacity to ask Jesus if He thought that he, Judas, was the one who would betray Him? Wow.

All of this made me ask, how different are we than they were and what kind of follower and example am I?

I don’t want to be like any of them! I want to learn from what I have read. I want to be a reflection of Christ in my remaining days. I want to extend His love and mercy in word, prayer and deed. I don’t want to be a calloused religious leader that has lost my heart to this world or just seeks knowledge for knowledge sake. I want to be extravagant in love and I want to be merciful enough not to condemn others who do things differently than I would, who may, in my eyes, “waste perfume.” And I don’t want to have hung around Jesus for all these years and “not get it”. I want to know Him more, to truly have fellowship with Him and with those who are His. That is my prayer for myself and all His beloved.

On the journey…
Valerie