I love the picture of Jesus sitting alone...he is alone and is sitting on a rock....His face distressed...I can relate to Him in this picture, when we feel isolated from not only others, we can also feel isolated from ourselves...feeling numb, feeling lost, feeling alone....rocks are not comfortable to sit on, and the one pictured here look even less comfortable...that deep feeling of the wilderness goes beyond what we feel we can see...is there really a wilderness at all? Is it that we have put blinders on ourselves and choosen to live in isolation from others, primarily those who are disrespectful, unkind, hurtful? Do we internalize these views others have told us we are? When and how do we get back to seeing what God sees us to be...what He sees in us...how can we fill ourselves back with His grace and allow His strength to not only help us to not only stand from the rock (a grounding symbol) but move our first foot forward and follow Him....eventually becoming so over flowing with His grace that we share all that with others effortlessly...I feel His pain in this picture, His face so sad...I have seen this image of God when I look into my own mirror, we all have at some point in our lives...it is what connects us to Jesus the flesh....reminding us of the pain and sacrifice He continued to do for us.
Terrific commentary, Gail! You delve much more deeply into Jesus' experience and his humanity. Your own journey informs insight into his, and you identify points of shared life. Your recognition of Jesus' vulnerability, isolation, distress, temptation help lead us into revelation about his centeredness, identity, hope, and clarity of decision. The two sets of qualitative experience are not separate or even necessarily at odds with one another. This being true, you will discover that you/we are deeply joined with him already in centeredness, identity, hope, and clarity! A couple of suggestions for us: let's take your questions about us (Is it that we have put blinders on? Do we internalize?)and make them "I" statements, filling in the details from our own lives (2) Rather than asking, "How do we get back to seeing what God sees?" or "How can we fill ourselves back up?"--both of which have us moving backwards with the onus on our action--let's allow Jesus in the story to be our joining point to realize/affirm how God is seeing us and strengthening us right now! Thanks. Great stuff!
I love the picture of Jesus sitting alone...he is alone and is sitting on a rock....His face distressed...I can relate to Him in this picture, when we feel isolated from not only others, we can also feel isolated from ourselves...feeling numb, feeling lost, feeling alone....rocks are not comfortable to sit on, and the one pictured here look even less comfortable...that deep feeling of the wilderness goes beyond what we feel we can see...is there really a wilderness at all? Is it that we have put blinders on ourselves and choosen to live in isolation from others, primarily those who are disrespectful, unkind, hurtful? Do we internalize these views others have told us we are? When and how do we get back to seeing what God sees us to be...what He sees in us...how can we fill ourselves back with His grace and allow His strength to not only help us to not only stand from the rock (a grounding symbol) but move our first foot forward and follow Him....eventually becoming so over flowing with His grace that we share all that with others effortlessly...I feel His pain in this picture, His face so sad...I have seen this image of God when I look into my own mirror, we all have at some point in our lives...it is what connects us to Jesus the flesh....reminding us of the pain and sacrifice He continued to do for us.
ReplyDeleteTerrific commentary, Gail! You delve much more deeply into Jesus' experience and his humanity. Your own journey informs insight into his, and you identify points of shared life. Your recognition of Jesus' vulnerability, isolation, distress, temptation help lead us into revelation about his centeredness, identity, hope, and clarity of decision. The two sets of qualitative experience are not separate or even necessarily at odds with one another. This being true, you will discover that you/we are deeply joined with him already in centeredness, identity, hope, and clarity! A couple of suggestions for us: let's take your questions about us (Is it that we have put blinders on? Do we internalize?)and make them "I" statements, filling in the details from our own lives (2) Rather than asking, "How do we get back to seeing what God sees?" or "How can we fill ourselves back up?"--both of which have us moving backwards with the onus on our action--let's allow Jesus in the story to be our joining point to realize/affirm how God is seeing us and strengthening us right now! Thanks. Great stuff!
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