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He gives us all his love
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Fifth Week of Lent
Numbers 21, Psalm 102, John 8
Whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he lived … The Lord looked down from his holy height, from heaven he beheld the earth, to hear the groaning of the prisoners, to release those doomed to die … Jesus said, ““When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me. The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone,
because I always do what is pleasing to him.” Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.
It isn’t complicated. When God looks down on us, he gives us all his love. When we look up at God, we might not even be looking in the right direction. And often, we’re looking up at God because we need something. We are mostly interested in being happy, healthy and whole, and so we look up to God to ask about that. Where is God? God is where his blessings are.
God is generous. He touches us with his healing, and his prosperity, and his wisdom. He blesses us beyond measure, beyond our ability to comprehend or receive. We look up after we’ve been bitten by the serpent, and we live.
Except that sometimes we die. Sometimes we are broken by circumstances. Sometimes we or others suffer incomprehensible abuse or rejection.
Teresa of Avila wrote that in our prayer we eventually learn to seek the God of consolations rather than the consolations of God. Notice the difference. We come to this by getting to know the Father, and the times we get to know him best are when he accompanies us through our own suffering.
What is Jesus saying … “I always do what is pleasing to my Father?”
Randy Newman sang, “He knows how hard we’re trying … If you need someone to talk to, you can always talk to him.” What else could Jesus mean except that Jesus “always talks to him.” Their conversations would have been legendary if only they had been recorded. We are left to discover the joy of dialogue with God, especially in the midst of suffering, for ourselves.
One thing I am sure of: God looks down on me with all his love. Jesus showed us that over and over, and we can follow him through our own stations of our own cross, and keep looking up. The serpent has no more juice, and death has no more sting.
Lord, let all creatures past and future, and let us today come to you. Hear our prayers. Hide not your face from us in the days of our distress. Incline your ear to us, O Lord, and answer us when we call. Release us, or we are doomed to die. Always in you there is more light, more life that rises up to meet us evermore.
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1467
