I wedged Timothy and Ezra, dressed in warm layers and puffy jackets into blue car, the two seater push car we have used for zoo trips since the grands outgrew strollers. Trekking across the parking lot and moving quickly from place to place sometimes means the younger ones need a lift but hoisting these solid kiddos is unrealistic, especially when we’re all dressed in slick coats. With temperatures barely above freezing when we arrived, neither complained about the closeness.
While Thomas and Amelia and their moms attend their monthly Little Learners class, I stroll the younger siblings through the exhibits, often accompanied by family or friends who have joined us in order to spend time with me and my precious grandchildren. We headed for the penguin house first, then the sea lions, the gorillas, and finally the aquarium- anywhere indoors on this cold, overcast winter day. The two younger boys walked and explored in enclosed or less crowded spaces and they did great together for the majority of the trip.
We all gathered for lunch and then braved the temperatures to feed the giraffes and watch the two new lions who are almost the same ages as Timothy and Ezra. We rode the carousel several times and the skyline. As I loaded the younger boys into blue car again, I knew it was time to head out when the head butting began. Four months apart and not quite two, both boys were fading fast, ready for the warm car ride home and long naps. I never can tell who started it but nobody wins with a head butt.
Stubbornness is a trait that rears its ugly head when we are stressed or exhausted and doubled or quadrupled on all sides of the family tree, screams of our fallen humanity. When our kids act out, it can be very convicting, mostly because we see ourselves in their actions. We may jokingly ask, “I wonder where she got that from?” or quip to our spouses, “That’s your child!” If we’re being very honest, we know the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. One willful bite wrecked what God created. What He called very good chose the knowledge of good and evil over intimacy with our Creator. Thank God, there is a way back. His name is Jesus.
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.”
John 3:16-17 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.3.16-17.NLT
“But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”
Romans 5:8 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rom.5.8.NLT
“When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.”
Romans 5:6 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rom.5.6.NLT
“There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him.
But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.
And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.
All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed.
But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”
John 3:18-21 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.3.18-21.NLT
Jesus’s teaching polarized people. Crowds of many thousands gathered to hear this itinerant rabbi speak. Even when He went to lonely places, the crowds followed Him. He taught boldly and with authority, unlike the Jewish teachers of the Law. They were amazed at His miracles. People brought their sick from everywhere to be healed. His disciples clung to Him. The Pharisees sought to entrap Him. Even Rome’s officials were curious about Him.
“He returned to Nazareth, his hometown.
When he taught there in the synagogue, everyone was amazed and said, “Where does he get this wisdom and the power to do miracles?”
Then they scoffed, “He’s just the carpenter’s son, and we know Mary, his mother, and his brothers—James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas.
All his sisters live right here among us.
Where did he learn all these things?”
And they were deeply offended and refused to believe in him.
Then Jesus told them, “A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his own family.”
And so he did only a few miracles there because of their unbelief.”
Matthew 13:54-58 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/mat.13.55.NLT
Once when He was teaching, Jesus cried out,
“I have come to set the world on fire, and I wish it were already burning!
I have a terrible baptism of suffering ahead of me, and I am under a heavy burden until it is accomplished.
Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth?
No, I have come to divide people against each other!
From now on families will be split apart, three in favor of me, and two against—or two in favor and three against.
‘Father will be divided against son and son against father; mother against daughter and daughter against mother; and mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’
Then Jesus turned to the crowd and said, “When you see clouds beginning to form in the west, you say, ‘Here comes a shower.’
And you are right.
When the south wind blows, you say, ‘Today will be a scorcher.’
And it is.
You fools! You know how to interpret the weather signs of the earth and sky, but you don’t know how to interpret the present times.
Why can’t you decide for yourselves what is right?”
Luke 12:49-57 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/luk.12.49-57.NLT
Look anywhere. There is so much anger. The globe is riddled with conflict and confusion. Our nation is divided. Homes are split. We are polarized politically and denominationally. Violence is rampant. Kindness and courtesy are relics. If we are blind to the prophecy being fulfilled in our time, Jesus’s words are for us.
“You fools! You know how to interpret the weather signs of the earth and sky, but you don’t know how to interpret the present times. Why can’t you decide for yourselves what is right?”
After Jesus called Matthew, a Jew under Roman authority tasked with collecting taxes from his fellow Jews, to follow Him, Matthew prepared an elaborate meal for Jesus. It was attended by many of his fellow tax collectors.
“But the Pharisees and their experts in the law complained to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
Jesus answered them, “Those who are well don’t need a physician, but those who are sick do.
I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.””
Luke 5:30-32 NET
https://bible.com/bible/107/luk.5.30-32.NET
Where do you instinctively see yourself in Jesus’s statement? Righteous or sinner? The Pharisees looked at the tax collectors seated around Matthew’s table as sinners but they saw themselves as righteous. Jesus told a story once to help His disciples think differently.
“Jesus also told this parable to some who were confident that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else.
“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: extortionists, unrighteous people, adulterers – or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.’
The tax collector, however, stood far off and would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, be merciful to me, sinner that I am!’
I tell you that this man went down to his home justified rather than the Pharisee.
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.””
Luke 18:9-14 NET
https://bible.com/bible/107/luk.18.9-14.NET
“For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight.
He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.
For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin.
People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.
This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time.
God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.
There is only one God, and he makes people right with himself only by faith, whether they are Jews or Gentiles.”
Romans 3:23-26, 30 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rom.3.23-25.NLT
“Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning:
Don’t think you are better than you really are.
Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.”
Romans 12:3 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rom.12.3.NLT
Timothy and Ezra love each other fiercely. Once in awhile it looks like biting or head butting but mostly, they play happily together, enjoying many of the same things even at almost two. They both love being read to and share many favorite books. They wrangle climbing into my lap, each a little jealous of my attention but with an arm around each grandson, we read happily together, them taking turns finishing my sentences.
We were made for life together. Jesus prayed in His high priestly prayer recorded in John chapter seventeen that we would be one even as He and the Father are One. When we truly abide in Him, the world will believe that God sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.
“Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.
Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.”
Romans 5:1-2 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rom.5.1-2.NLT
“Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?””
Luke 18:8 NET
https://bible.com/bible/107/luk.18.8.NET
“Father, you are holy.
The world does not know you, but I know you.
Those you have given me know you have sent me.
I have shown you to them.
And I will continue to show you to them.
Then the love you have for me will be in them.
I myself will be in them.”
John 17:25-26 NIRV
https://bible.com/bible/110/jhn.17.25-26.NIRV
““I have loved you even as the Father has loved me.
Remain in my love.”
John 15:9 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.15.9.NLT
Jesus did come to set the world on fire.
“On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place.
Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting.
Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them.
And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.”
Acts of the Apostles 2:1-4 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/act.2.3.NLT
Whole families came to faith in Jesus on one day and across the generations, many more have followed. We who believe are tasked with making Him known still. So I ask, where does your allegiance lie? What you believe about anything else will not matter eventually but what you believe about Jesus marks you for eternity. I won’t argue with you but I will love you enough to speak Truth.
“This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you:
God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.
So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth.
But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.
But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.”
1 John 1:5-10 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1jn.1.5-10.NLT
“But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.”
John 1:12 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.1.12.NLT
I Still Need Jesus ~After Grace https://youtu.be/RPf87QsKKRM?si=g-spkW8Dw9OIBT09
🙏🏻World On Fire ~for King & Country ft Taylor Hill https://youtu.be/ti97RD12YIA?si=jrOCjWipfvtSBlxp
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