Smoodock's Blog

Some time ago, I remember seeing an animated version of Christians involved in ministry at their local church. It portrayed the ministries of three adults involved in children’s ministry. The first two appeared to be nothing more than babysitting. The children seemed to be very active and the two adults seemed a bit annoyed but bearing with it all, while the bubble above their heads showed what they really wanted to do. One saw himself involved in the choir, and the other saw herself helping the aged. The animation showed they truly wanted to help, but they really wanted to be doing something else. The third adult looked like he was really enjoying the children. He was sitting on the floor with them laughing and the bubble above his head was an exact replica of what he was already doing. In other words, he was content in his ministry and wouldn’t prefer doing anything else, no matter what that might be!

Although I looked at that animation probably twenty years ago or more, I never forgot the message behind it. As I consider John’s prologue, and in particular John 1:14, I have to consider the heart of God. Where did the Word (Jesus) prefer to be? What was really going on in our heavenly Father’s heart? All kinds of thoughts are flowing through my mind at this moment, like David’s words: “What is man that you are so mindful of him?” …or Paul’s words to the Philippians: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ, Jesus; who being in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God something to be grasped, but took upon himself the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of man;” and Jesus’ own words on the night before his death when he told the disciples: “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer!” In other words, there was no other place Jesus would have rather be than to be with those men at that moment. “God so loved the world that he sent his only Son…” In other words, there was absolutely nothing more important on his heart than to reach out to us in love, no matter what the cost.

What does it mean to you that God decided to come down from his place to live like you and me; to know the limitations you and I know; to experience the same kind of trouble you and I endure from those in authority? Does this cause you to think that there is more to salvation than merely living forever? As for me, I am moved with the fact that God spent almost 30 years before his public ministry in relative anonymity. It is almost like a waste of time, except for the fact that we understand that he just wanted to live with us, be with us, laugh with us and suffer the same things we suffer, like hunger, misunderstanding, etc. I wonder if Jesus may have been one of the people who was forced to walk a mile with the Roman courier carrying his load for him, and when his time was up, rather than permit the courier to force someone else, Jesus said: “No, I’ll go further with you!” Do you think Jesus was insulted from time to time, but rather than take offence, he turned the other cheek! Do those things he preached merely come to him as abstract truths or did he learn them through those preparatory years before his 3 ½ year public ministry? There are many things we don’t know for certain, but they have a ring of truth to them—it may have happened just that way!

Personally, I am blown away with the service of people who willingly take part in the lives of folks who live under Spartan conditions far and away less than what we are able to enjoy. I am thinking about missionaries here, and people who work with the homeless and inner-city problems. You know, this is exactly what Jesus did by becoming a flesh and blood human being (John 1:14). He took part in our lives and lived just as we live—Spartan conditions and all (when you consider the conditions he left behind). Yet, he never complained. On the contrary, there was nowhere else he would have rather be—not even heaven! Imagine!