Golf ran into dinner time which collided with bedtime. If you have toddlers in your life, you know those acid hours can turn ugly in a skinny minute. No amount of consoling or cajoling can interrupt the meltdown once it starts and forget sleep coming easily afterwards. My son messaged his wife saying he had three more holes to play so we decided it would be wise to get their kids bathed and ready for bed in case they fell asleep in the car during their drive home.
One year old Ezra is always excited about running a bath so he and I started the tub and he wiggled impatiently, trying to climb in on his own until the water was warm. He splashed and played happily until time to rinse his hair. I’ve learned to be quick and leave that for the last moment because once his face is wet, he’s trying to climb out on his own and wrangling a slippery wet baby means I’m usually soaked as well.
Amelia, at three, knows the drill. Every bath begins with her asking if it’s hair washing day. This day was no different. Before her mom snuggled Ezra into his towel and took him into the bedroom to put him into pajamas, she reminded Amelia that every day at Lolly’s is hair washing day. Amelia patiently accepted a good head to toe scrubbing as most outside play finds her digging into whatever mulch, dirt, leaf debris, or potting soil happens to be handy. She unstoppered the drain and climbed out into her warm towel with hood and hand pockets. She leaned down to move her stool to the sink to brush her hair and teeth but she was interrupted by an attack of the itchies.
Like her daddy, she suffers with eczema. Before pulling on her pajamas, I hopped her onto the countertop to apply her lotion. After coating her back and legs, I asked her to hold her arms out to her sides so I could lotion both at once. When she did, she turned to me wide-eyed and said, “I look like Jesus!” “Yes, you do, baby girl,” I said. “Yes, you do.”
From our pew on Sunday mornings, she scans the stained glass windows, each beautifully depicting a moment in the life of Jesus. Over my left shoulder, her eyes rest on the crucifixion scene. She knows who hangs on the cross and why, yet she asks, innocently, every time, the same way she asks about the framed print hanging above my guest bed where she gets dressed after her bath of Jesus reaching down to Peter as they walked on the water. “Who is it, Lolly?” “You know,” I reply. Then I tell her again.
“Jesus loved you so much that He stretched out His arms on the cross to show you. He died on that cross and He was buried in a tomb for three days but He didn’t stay dead, did He?” She shakes her head no. “He’s alive forever and He’s gone to get a place ready for you and for me and when the time is right, He’ll come back to take us to His perfect home. We can be with Him forever!” (John 3:16, John 14:1-6) “Lolly believes that with all her heart and I pray that one day you will too.” She smiles.
Leading people to Jesus is what you and I were made for, like the starving man who finds bread and plenty of it. It’s not right for us to keep something like that, someone like Jesus, to ourselves. Think about two analogies Jesus used with Peter when He called him. Initially, Jesus said, “I will make you a fisher of men,” and after He restored Peter, He said, “Feed my lambs and look after my sheep.” (Matthew 4:19, John 21:15-19) Fishing was hard work. Peter once said they’d fished all night without catching a single fish. Fishing required rowing out to where the fish were, going deep, casting a net wide and waiting, sometimes all night. Morning meant hauling and mending nets, relentless work before going out again the next night.
Tending sheep was no easier, but it represented the next step beyond fishing. Fishermen brought their catch to market and left them there. Finding the lost sheep, as in Jesus’s parable, was only one responsibility of a shepherd. Continual care for lambs was required. Daily they were fed as shepherds led them to good pasture and beside still water. Sheep were sheared in season, protected day and night, and led from place to place by the voice and the rod of the shepherd.
Jesus entrusted Peter, the twelve, and now us, the Church with stewarding souls. He commissioned us, equipped us, and abides with us. (Matthew 28:18-20, II Peter 1:3, John 15:4-8) During His time on earth as recorded in scripture, we get a glimpse of what He is capable of when we bring people to Him. Four friends brought a paralyzed man to Jesus. The man’s sins were forgiven and he was healed. (Mark 2:3-12) Parents brought their children to Jesus and He blessed them. (Matthew 19:13-15) Jairus would have carried his dying daughter to Jesus but she was so sick, he begged Jesus to come to her instead. Jesus came and the little girl lived again. (Mark 5:22-43)
“Jesus returned to the Sea of Galilee and climbed a hill and sat down.
A vast crowd brought to him people who were lame, blind, crippled, those who couldn’t speak, and many others.
They laid them before Jesus, and he healed them all.
The crowd was amazed!
Those who hadn’t been able to speak were talking, the crippled were made well, the lame were walking, and the blind could see again!
And they praised the God of Israel.”
â€â€Matthew‬ â€15‬:â€29‬-â€31‬ â€NLT‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/116/mat.15.29-31.NLT
What have you witnessed that only Jesus could do? Whose healing? What provision? When were you so far gone that only God’s Son could bring you back? Where have you walked, thinking you were alone only to realize that the single set of footprints were His, carrying you? Why are you still here when that close call almost took your life? Think for a minute. When has God been good to you when you least deserved it? You won’t have to think any farther than the cross.
“And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you.
Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable.
This is truly the way to worship him.”
â€â€Romans‬ â€12‬:â€1‬ â€NLT‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/116/rom.12.1.NLT
Through absolute surrender, let His image be made in you from glory to ever increasing glory until all who encounter you see only Jesus. (II Corinthians 3:18, John 17:22-24)
“Then Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you.
And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.””
â€â€Matthew‬ â€28‬:â€18‬-â€20‬ â€HCSB‬‬
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