Follow Me

Follow Me, He said with a smile. There was trust in His eyes, love shone through every gaze, His hand stretched out as if to rescue me from a cliff. There was a seriousness in His brow, of concern and deep pain. I sensed He knew a secret, that none of us ever claimed. But He kept us in His strength, as He taught and showed the Father's Way. There were days He loved strangers to such extremities, we would worry about how to stay sane. "This is just too much, Jesus, you need to get some space." But His heart was in constant focus, as though completely transfixed on one thing. People. There were always more people. People to see and to hear and to lift up. He always saw the ones, that others would ignore or turn away. Jesus never grew weary in doing good. 

His prayers were perpetually sent. Some were uttered in whispers, others sounded emotionally spent. But He never missed a day. Nor was there ever a moment He forgot to give Abba thanks. "You can always ask of the Father", He'd tell us with great confidence. 

And somehow, He always knew the right words to share. The kind of words that healed bodies and hearts every single step of the way. Thus, rumours spread of His journey; of the man who breathes life into dead bones. As we followed in His footsteps, the story somehow wasn't whole. There was a time still coming, when we would surely know. But this only occurred to us after the missing pieces were finally shown.

So we couldn't have really known.

There was always something about Jesus, being near Him brought great peace. I felt kinder and wiser than I'd ever been before. Before He held out His hand and invited me upon the shore. There was never a time in His presence, where I felt out of place or scorned. Instead I felt such comfort, like there was anything I could have said and done. He assured me I was accepted and His words never ran dry nor cold. The closer I walked beside Him, the more my insides filled to the brim. Full of all things good, that produced fruit for others to know. To know Him, I later understood.

  

Will we follow Him to the grave? The one He paved as our escape. He lead the way, through Himself. True life awaits in His embrace. But there must be a death, unlike how we expect. There is no need to fear any shadowed underworld. If we but lay ourselves down, as in, our selfishness and pride, somehow our hearts will mend and Love will produce unceasing life through our soul. 

Will you follow the One, who lived a life here on our Earth. He kneeled into the dust and gathered all our tears and troubles unto Himself.

"But for many of us, life is just not that bad. To need a Saviour seems absurd. Redeemed from what? I'm fine, you're the one who looks unwell."

The only thing I wonder then, is what a shame it is, to be given a chance to know someone so lovely, kind, and good but choose not to enrich our lives because of the failure of some folks. Humans who bashed and yelled and made us feel so horrible. Pressed into guilt instead of given the freedom to see His truth unfold. Not at all the way I imagine, Jesus would ever reveal the story of God's Grace and the heavy price that He desperately sowed. Wouldn't you want to know, the greatest love that's ever been known? The kind of love that can heal the world. If we all allowed it to come even closer than ever before.

“The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

John 1:9-12, 14 NIV