Christian Counseling Service -- Devotions

Life is in the turning

Thursday, April 5, 2018

From Luke 24
Jesus stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you." But they were startled and terrified and thought they were seeing a ghost. So he said to them, "Touch me and see," and he showed them his hands and his feet. And he asked, "Have you anything to eat?" He took baked fish and ate it in front of them.

And standing on his resurrected feet, out of his resurrected mouth Jesus began to teach, just as he had before. But now, their minds were opened. Something about the resurrected Jesus brought the disciples into new life too. "You are witnesses of these things," he said to them. They couldn't believe their eyes, they couldn't believe their ears ... no, actually, now at last they COULD believe. This was not a dream.

No longer dense of mind or thick of spirit, these disciples would soon go on to worldwide preaching and healing, as well as sacrifice and martyrdom. Only John would escape execution.

This amazing Jesus stood before them and ate fish. This Jesus had been very very dead, and now he was more alive than ever. The nails left huge holes in his hands and feet, and he wanted them to put their fingers in and feel. The "idea" of resurrection made no sense and could not be believed, but this was not idea. This was the man Jesus in his completely physical body and his totally spiritual body.

It is the preaching and writing of his witnesses that allows us in to this story. Without them ...

It is dark. But there are hands
There I can take, voices to hear
Solider than the echoes
Without. And sometimes a strange light
Shines, purer than the moon,
Casting no shadow, that is
The halo upon the bones
Of the pioneers who died for truth.
- R. S. Thomas, "Groping"

Jesus said to his disciples, "No one can come to the Father except by me." Jesus told Mary, "I am going to my Father and your Father." Now, after the crucifixion and its apocalyptic victory over evil, Jesus can also say, "And no one can stop me from bringing you to the Father."

So let's go.

Life is not hurryings
On to a receding future, nor hankering after
An imagined past. It is the turning
Aside like Moses to the miracle
Of the lit bush, to a brightness
That seemed as transitory as your youth
Once, but is the eternity that awaits you.
- R. S. Thomas, "The Bright Field"

In the moment of saving, Lord, there is no waiting, even as there is no hurry. When I find myself in the fullness of time, there is nothing more to know than your touch and presence, your smile and the sweet breath you breathe on my face because you're so close. We are coming home.

Devotions Archive

Life is in the turning

Thursday, April 5, 2018