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Dirt

Dirt. Her feet were caked in it from a long day’s journey. She desperately needed to bathe and she longed for a soft bed. But her present surroundings were a far cry from the cleanliness she desired. There may not be blankets in this meager stable, but there is plenty of dirt for people and animals alike. She looks down at her newborn baby and sobs, “I’m so sorry it had to be here, Jesus. You deserve so much better. This is no place for a king.”

Dirt. There was certainly plenty of it to go around. As the boy grew, it would accompany him everywhere. It would surround him for 40 days in the wilderness, it would sneak under his fingernails as he worked in the carpentry shop and it would amass on his feet as he and a ragtag band of misfits roamed the countryside. Near the end of his life, he would make it a point to wash the grime and grit off the feet of his ragamuffin gang.

Dirt would be kicked up in his face as he was beaten. It would gather in his hair when he fell while carrying a cross. The filth and rust of a Roman nail would one day pierce what were now tiny hands. Born in the dirt of a manger to return to the dirt in death.

Dirt. It was always about the dirt and the filth. The King came to the pigpen as swine. He slept in the slop bucket, and endured the slaughterhouse. The King came because He saw that his people were dirty, and He knew this was the only way we could be clean.

Life With Us

It was the second most magical moment in all of time. The first was when He created life. As the angels watched in amazed silence, God re-connected with his creation after thousands of years of separation. It had been part of the plan ever since man chose sin over Godliness. Even before He did it, He knew what it would take and what He would experience. The pain made him wince but the overpowering thought of being reunited with His creation made Him all the more willing to go through with it. He had the chance to do something unheard of. He had the chance to bridge the gap between man and God.

For a brief moment in time Heaven came to earth. All that was good in Heaven was given to the people it was always meant for. The Master finally had the chance He had been waiting for. He had the opportunity to share His undying love and unfaltering commitment with His most prized creation. For so many centuries He had longed to walk with them and talk with them. He had always wanted more than anything to personally comfort them in their time of need, to let them know that He was there and that He cared about them more than they could ever know. This was His chance. He could show them what they meant to Him.

See His energetic smile as a young boy, playing tag with His friends and taking part in the joys of His creation’s childhood. He may not have known it then, but what he was doing was something He had only been able to watch from a distance, it was something He had always wanted to take part in. Children were so innocent, they were so much more unique than the rest of mankind, yet because of man’s sin, God had never gotten to interact with them. Now He was getting that chance, and what made it even more special was that He got to do it from the perspective of a child.

Hear Him as a growing adolescent, telling jokes at public gatherings. I’ll bet He could bring the room down with laughter by sharing some of His humorous analogies. Maybe He knew then. Maybe He didn’t; but His humor came not from what life He had lived but from what He had observed from Heaven. Can you see the glow in His eyes as He sees that He has connected with His audience and that He is bringing them cheer? He would do that many years later with more serious analogies. He would later bring them not just cheer, but hope as well.

Watch him at the temple as a young teen as he asks the church leaders questions. He knew. At this point in His life, He knew who He was and what He had to do. His questions were not designed to gain knowledge. His questions were ones that would make the church leaders think. Observe the glow on His face as He sees lights going off in the heads of His audience. Finally, after all this time He had a chance to teach and interact with His children in their own world. This time He could see something He hadn’t seen before. He could see that they were listening and that they were learning from Him. It wasn’t just following commands, or trying to please Him, they were actually hearing His voice and considering His words. It melted His heart even then.

He must have loved it. His original plan was to be able to spend time with the one creation that He had made in His image and to be united with them. Because of sin that couldn’t happen, but now… Now it was different, He became one with the creation. For the first time since the Garden of Eden, He could walk among them. How it must have warmed His heart to be able to dry their tears and ease their pain. And to be able to reach out and actually touch them again, that was something He had wanted to do for years. To just put a firm hand on the back of those that were struggling and give them the reassurance that all would get better in time. It meant so much more to them, and to Him, to be able to tell them these things in person. Never before had this been possible. Their sin had always pushed them so far away from His love. This time that love was close by. He was so close that He could actually talk to them one on one in a way that they could understand.

It felt great when He saw people coming to Him for help. Never in all of time had this many people turned to Him. He saw people giving up everything they had to follow Him, which was the one thing He had hoped for from afar for thousands of years. He could do things as a human that He couldn’t do from His throne because they would feel intimidated, like their struggles were small compared to an omnipotent God. He could look in their eyes and see trust, and He could return that look in His own eyes. He could talk with them and walk with them. He could gently teach them and even more gently, correct them. The miracles He did from Heaven, He could do on earth and people could see Him doing them.

Before, people “looked” to God without ever seeing Him and trusted Him blindly. While He was a man, people could literally look to Him, and the faith they had in Him was anything but blind. The people who heard Him teach, believed, and they believed not because of the power of His words but by the power of His presence and the unconditional love that He showed them.

That was the part He enjoyed the most. He could love them. He could show them how much He loved them and once they experienced His love they knew that it could come from no other heart but God’s. He could quench the thirsty soul of the desperate. He could feed the spiritual hunger of the abandoned. His love showed the outcasts that their burdens were not just theirs, but that He shared their pain. He loved them all, no matter what the circumstance. He was a defendant to the sinful, a light to those in the darkness, a hope for those without hope, a refuge for the fearful, and a servant to all.  It was clear to them if they really opened their heart that no human could love like this.

When all was said and done and the nails had been driven home, there was no question among those that heard Him; He was God. He made His mark and His mark still remains. He showed us how to live and taught us the ways of God. He led us all down the path of righteousness, but most importantly. He loved us. He is the only example of true love the world has ever seen. The one who loves us enough and knows us well enough to never let us down, knock us out, or lead us into confusion. He enjoyed every second of being with us, and I know one thing is for sure. He is eagerly waiting, with more excitement than ever, for the day the trumpet will sound and He will get to be in fellowship with His most beloved and precious creation again. He loves us, and someday

He will come to lead us home.

He Loves You Anyway

Friend to the Friendless

A tax collector, a Samaritan woman, and an adulteress. What could this threesome possibly have in common? Everything in the world. Every one of them was a social outcast. Alone, with only a string of failures and a hardened heart to keep them company. Every one of them friendless. Not a friend in the world to claim. That is, until they met Jesus. He showed them what real friendship was all about. Faults other people condemned them for, he forgave. He overlooked their failures to see their hearts, and he didn’t ever look down on them.

Matthew was a tax collector. This man was the Roman Empire’s equivalent of an IRS agent. He had been known to steal some money and cheat a few people out of their hard-earned dough just so that he could have a healthy life. His main concern in life was money, and because he was looking at gold instead of the needs of flesh and blood, he was paying dearly. After people found out that this man was dishonest and that he was only after their wallets, it didn’t take long before they stopped inviting Matthew over for dinner on pay day, or any other day for that matter. Matthew served both the Romans and his own greed, both of which encouraged him to cheat people. Matthew was not well liked among the people and it’s a safe bet that not one tear would fall in the event of his death.

When the Jews looked at Mathew they saw a slick scumbag who could double talk his way out of any situation. They saw first class sleaze. Jesus, on the other hand, saw something totally different. Jesus saw Matthew’s heart. Jesus knew that Matthew didn’t like himself. He knew that this wasn’t what the tax collector wanted to do with his life.

No child ever says, “When I grow up I want to cheat people out of their money and build a life based on lies and greed. I want to make a life for myself by taking from everyone else.” He knew that no adult, after living that lifestyle looked in the mirror each morning and remarked, “I’ve walked all over innocent and trusting people all of my life to get where I am now. I’ve worked hard to achieve the high status of social outcast. I love having no friends. I think I’ll go to work today and make a few more enemies.” Jesus knew that Matthew was not happy with how his life had turned out and he came and offered to change it. He came and offered Matthew everything. He extended not only the hand of God, but also a hand of friendship, and it changed Matthew’s life forever.

The woman from Samaria– down but not out. Five times her heart had been broken. Number six was on its way. She had no friends to speak of, her family was ashamed of her, and the rumors about her lifestyle ran rampant around the city and neighboring towns. She was the most undesirable woman within a 20-mile radius. Her own people even condemned her, not just the self-righteous Jews of her day.

She was a lone woman searching for the truth and trying her hardest to understand the mysteries of God. She had a willingness to learn and she sought God with a gusto that impressed even Jesus himself. It was at the roughest point in her life, when the stress thermometer had reached its limit that Jesus came to her. He told her everything she ever did. He knew things about her that nobody had ever known, but instead of looking down on her and condemning her, Jesus understood her. Never had anyone understood her or cared about her that deeply. Lovers had come and gone, friends had stayed for a season and fled, but she could tell by just one look in the eyes of Christ that he would never leave. That he would always understand her and always be her friend. She was right. He was the long waited Messiah. The God who cared.

We don’t know very much about the adulteress. No name, no descriptive characteristics, no background information. All we do know is that an angry mob of the Jewish elite stormed into her bedroom, ripped her from her lover’s arms, paraded her to the temple courts and threw her at Christ’s feet. She lay there half-naked and covered with shame as they exposed her deeds to Jesus. We don’t know the whole story. Was she a prostitute? Had she done this before? Was she married? We don’t ever hear what the circumstances are that led her to commit adultery, all we know is that she did. The laws clearly stated that the proper punishment for this act was stoning. She had to be put to death.

When the Jews told this to Jesus, he made a bold statement that let them all know just how God felt about judgment. “Oh, is that what your law says? That’s what your law says, is it? Okay, fair game. Whoever among you is without sin, you may cast the first stone.” Defeated they tossed down their stones and walked away. The woman at Jesus’ feet cringed. She knew what was coming. She had heard what the people had said of this man. He was the one without sin. He was the one that could kill her. He probably would too. She had never known any man that she could really trust.

Jesus knelt down to her and raised her head. Looking deeply into her eyes and penetrating her soul he gently told her, “I understand. I forgive you. Now go, and sin no more.” That wasn’t the condemnation of a God that she was expecting. It was the kindness of a friend. A friend that just happened to be the incarnation of God. He understood her and wanted to be her friend. Wow. He truly is the God who cares.

Have you been there recently? Have you been in the center of a major crises with no friends to turn to? Everyone has walked away leaving just one. Alone and hurting. Nowhere to turn, with just a tiny thread of hope to hold onto. The fear that that tiny thread could snap leaving you with nothing keeps you awake at night. If you’ve ever had no friends to speak of or if all you’ve ever wanted is just one true best friend to stand beside you, this is for you.

Jesus really is the friend to the friendless. He doesn’t look down on anyone and he is never ashamed of anyone, no matter what they may do. If someone let’s Jesus down, he doesn’t hold it against them. He handles everything with the most pure and the most true form of love we’ve ever known. Jesus is patient and kind. He is never jealous and he won’t boast or brag. Jesus will never do anything out of selfishness, and he won’t just suddenly decide he’s having a bad day and start being rude to you.

He will never demand his own way. He will always give you a choice of what to do, even if he knows it isn’t the best thing. He will allow you to do what you want to do without making demands or pressuring you. He does this so that you can learn from experiences. Even if you make a choice that he doesn’t agree with he won’t hold it against you. Even if you make a choice he doesn’t agree with and you fall because of it, he will pick you up and console you. You will never hear Jesus say, “I told you so.”

Jesus is never irritable or touchy. He won’t snap at you out of the blue and he never takes his frustrations out on other people. He does not hold grudges. Just as he forgave the soldiers that drove the spikes through the layers of flesh, bone, and veins in his wrists, he will forgive you without holding a grudge. He forgives the instant you do something wrong, and then he does the amazing thing. He forgets. Jesus doesn’t even notice when someone has done him wrong.

Jesus never takes joy in injustice. If someone hurts you, he won’t laugh. He doesn’t think it is amusing when others get hurt. He is happy with the truth and that characteristic allows him to set you free from whatever chains are holding you captive. Jesus is forever loyal too. Loyalty is probably his greatest characteristic. He was loyal enough to die for you on a cross. His willingness to lay down his life for you shows that he will be loyal no matter what the cost. He gave his life because of his loyalty to us.

He believes in you, and he always will. He always expects the best of you, but is never disappointed if you fail to follow through. He will also do what other friends have failed to do. He will always stand his ground in defending you. People can’t harm you, the devil can’t touch you, and the circumstances can’t drag you under because Jesus is forever on your side. Don’t you wish you had a friend like that? You do. You always will. He is the friend to the friendless. The God who cares.

The Outcast

“Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”
-John 4:28-29

She walks the long hot road on an equally long and hot day. Her feet are sore, but not as wounded as her reputation. Five husbands. Five people she has given both body and soul to. She has loved, but never been loved in return. Oh, they all said they loved her, but when push came to shove she was doing all of the giving and they gave nothing but grief in return. The one she lived with now refused to marry her. With tears in her eyes she realized that he didn’t love her either. If he did, he would be more than willing to be her husband. And then, there were her friends.

They called themselves friends. They came to her when they needed a favor but the second her back was turned the gossip began. Why she hadn’t given up on people long ago was a mystery to her. Her heart burned with anger just thinking about the way she had been treated. Her soul yearned for someone she could trust or some refuge where she could turn to in troubled times. Yeah, right. Like she deserved that. She was the first to admit that she had ruined her life. It was a bit unfair the way she was treated, but maybe someday…

Maybe someday. That was her hope. Those words constantly echoed in her mind. Maybe someday she would meet someone who cared about her for who she was. Maybe someday people would accept her. Maybe someday she would not be looked down on. Maybe someday… It almost seemed as if her whole existence was consumed by “maybe somedays.” Those thoughts were her only hope. Thoughts of her life caused her to grow discouraged, and she unthinkingly moved along the trail at a more rapid pace with her head hung in shame.

That was when she saw him and stopped dead in her tracks. Leaning against the well up ahead. A Jew. A member of the group most likely to condemn her. She thinks for a moment about turning back. Haughtiness is the last thing she needs and it isn’t worth it to continue only to be insulted. There was something inviting about the man though. She wasn’t sure what. His manner was peaceful. “I’ve got nothing else to lose.” She mutters as she approaches the well and the man beside it.

As she makes eye contact with the man she braces herself for what he might say and what he might think. Then he does the last thing she would ever expect a Jew to do in her presence. He smiled at her. Nobody ever smiled at her. Not even her lover. He gave her a look of pity and disgust half the time. But this man… Hadn’t he heard? Did he not know what kind of woman people thought she was? Was he unaware of the rumors?

As if sensing her thoughts the man’s smile turned to a grin. His eyes twinkled. “I know.” They seemed to say. “But I don’t care.” Can I trust him? The woman thought. There was only one way to find out what his intentions were, and that was to do the unthinkable. Talk to him.

Right off she knew there was something different about him. She could tell after only a few words that not only could she trust him, but that she could talk to him about anything. He seemed to talk in riddles, but what he said was very valuable. He offered her life like she had never known it before. Who is this man? And why would he see something valuable in her? For once she had met someone who wouldn’t let her down. And then he did.

“Go and get your husband.” Such a sore subject. She hung her head before muttering that she had no husband. The Jew saw a tear in her eye and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“True, you have had five husbands, all of which are gone now. The man you live with now doesn’t love you. You’ve worried about it for a long time, and after that fight this morning, you know it isn’t love. It hurts. I know.” Jesus took two fingers and lifted her chin so she could look into his eyes.

Looking into his eyes, the woman saw something. She saw the same thing everyone else had seen in his eyes. She saw not just love and compassion; she saw the love of God. Impulse told her to run. A broken life told her to stay. The words she caught herself saying next were odd. They came, not from her mind, but from the wounded heart that had been hurt so many times. “You’re a prophet. I have just one question for you.” Jesus nodded, urging her to continue.

“My people have always worshiped God from this mountain. Your people say that God must be worshiped in Jerusalem. I want to be close to God. Can you tell me how?” The Samaritan woman had no other hope, and was at that point willing to do all she could to be closer to God. Oh if only she knew just how close she actually was to God at that moment.

Jesus responded to her with compassion in his voice, “The time has come when it no longer matters. Very soon your people will be able to worship not in this geographic location or another, but in spirit and in Truth.”

“Sir… I know that one day the Messiah is coming. Will he help us sort all of this out?”

Jesus’ eyes brightened, as did his smile. He admired the woman’s longing to be near to God. He had crossed the paths of many hardened hearts. This woman had every reason to have a hardened heart; it had certainly been broken enough times. Despite all that had happened in her life, she was willing to listen, willing to learn. In her spirit was the formula for eternal life, and she was standing only inches away from the key. “I am He,” was all that Jesus said.

“Come again?” The woman may have asked before processing the thought.

Jesus just smiled and nodded. He knew she had heard him the first time.

This was not possible. This man claimed to be more than a prophet, he was claiming to be the Messiah. The woman had been taught that the Messiah would be God’s redemption and if this man who knew her life story and still accepted her… If this man was who he said he was, then… God cared… For her… For the first time in years the woman’s face glowed. She now had a hope, all of her “Maybe somedays…” Had vanished, she had just received everything she ever needed.

Without another word she ran into the town to tell her neighbors, whether they wanted to hear it or not. Thank you wasn’t necessary. Jesus had read her heart and knew that she would always be forever grateful. In the town the woman came to everyone she saw, “Come see the man who told me everything I ever did, and still accepts me. I think he may be the Christ.” And they came, and they believed, not just because of the woman’s testimony, but because Jesus healed their wounds just as He did hers.

Have you ever been there? Your plans have failed, you’ve been let down, a countless number of heartaches have troubled your soul and wrecked your life, and you don’t see any way out. Has the phrase “Maybe someday” become your Mantra? Fingers point, eyes stare, and rumors fly. Your reputation has been scarred and there is no way to get away from the harshness of others. Have you felt alone? An outcast. A lone madman on an impossible journey. Take heart. Jesus stands at the well beckoning you to try the water of life. The Samaritan woman got a taste of it and she was forever changed. She went from having nothing, to gaining everything.

I’m not sure about anyone else, but when I get to Heaven, this is the first woman I want to talk to. There will always be time to talk to Moses and Joshua and Great Aunt Tillie, but first I want to get to know this mysterious nameless woman from Samaria. Of all the people in the Bible, she is the one that interests me most. We don’t know much about her, the gospels do not go into great detail where she is concerned, but what they do reveal is very powerful. We know that she was an outcast, that she had never really known love, and that she was the talk of the town in a negative way. All of that changed with just one look in the Master’s eyes.

I’d like to ask her what it felt like to look God straight in the face, and what it was like to actually hear the voice of the creator saying “I care about you in a way you could never measure in human terms.” I’d like to ask her what it felt like to have the Messiah tell her that the church leaders of her day were wrong, that it was faith that brought people closer to God and not religion. I’d like to hear her life story from her perspective and hear how Christ changed her life forever.

I’d also like to talk to her about courage. It’s apparent that she had a lot of it. She had no good reason to go back to the town. She could have followed Jesus wherever he went and it would have been a lot safer. She wouldn’t have to face the people in her city ever again. That wasn’t what she chose to do. She chose to return. She came back from the well with a renewed spirit and a heart of gold. Imagine the courage, to tell people who thought she was the lowest form of human life they had ever seen about the highest form of life they could ever know.

After she trusted Jesus, she went back to the town that slighted her and told everyone about this gift she had been given from the Master. The change in the woman’s heart was amazing and instant. She had just tasted eternal life, and after the way she had been treated, she could have kept it all to herself. Instead, she went to people who had snubbed her for years and showed them how to find it. That took courage. It was because of her courage that they went, and they learned, and they too received the water for their thirsty and dehydrated souls. The woman was never an outcast again. She became a pillar of faith, the woman who had so little, but had shown them so much. A tiny light in a world of darkness.

Jesus saw something precious underneath a pile of rubble in her soul, and he illuminated it for all to see. Jesus did the same for everyone. The best news is that He still does it. When life loses its luster and time drags on, go to the well. He waits there with a supply of water that will never run out. When the waves rise above your head and your dreams turn to nightmares, go to the well. It will never run dry. When you are weary and tired of running the race, go to the well. Jesus is there. He knows everything you ever did, and He still loves you.