JANUARY 22, 2020

An updated selection from 2015...

"No one has seen God at any time, 

the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father.  

He has explained Him."

Ponder.  No one.  Not even Moses.  Adam Clarke says that "Moses and others heard His voice, saw the cloud and the fire, which were the symbols of His presence; but such as manifestation of God as had now taken place, in the person of Jesus Christ, had never before  been exhibited to the world.  It is likely that the word 'seen' here, is put in for 'known.'  No man, how highly soever favored, 'hath fully known God at any time,' in any nation or age...'Lying in the bosom'...this place...was supposed to be in a state of the utmost favor and intimacy with Him."

Sometimes I feel like a confused Christian following breadcrumbs in bewildered wanderings.  However, I am beginning to understand that it is because it is incomprehensible, the otherness of God.  "No eye hath seen..."  sort of otherworldliness.

Faith is the assurance of what is not see.  So here we are as Christians walking around without seeing.  Voila, there is Jesus.  "He has explained Him."  We can spend the rest of our lives at His feet trying to take it all in, like Mary with a brother who would be needing mummy clothes that would make Jesus weep.  Some think that this is the same Mary who anointed His feet with her perfume and wiped it with her hair. (John 11:1) How intimate is that?  Jesus said it was good and it would not be taken away from her to sit at His feet.

I have mentioned before, I recently had a life-changing experience, intimate even, of being wrapped up next to my Savior hearing Him whisper in my soul that I was doing what I was supposed to be doing.  I did not seek it.  I did not anticipate it.  I was just sitting at His feet in church, not even in my own church, feeling a little cut loose.  That was as close as "lying in the bosom," as I am likely to get in this world.  He, unseen, was as close as being a person who loves me to make it unforgettable.  You know the experience of having someone come up close with their arm around you whispering into your ear, a person full of unquestionable love.  That was what it was like, but in an ephemera epiphany.  I came away knowing I have a Lover of my soul.  He is a Person, the God who loves me, who is love. 

It wasn't a Martha moment.  God's presence did not urge me to go about my household duties more diligently, nor condemn me for the things of dust staying dusty.  Instead, like Mary who poured herself out, all she had of value, whose brother-the arm of flesh-was ill and might not be around to take care of her; yet she washed Jesus' feet with costly perfume which was her total savings.  He said it would not be taken away from her.  Staying at His feet is not to be taken away.  It is where we are supposed to be.  He is lying in the bosom of the Father, but we are close: we are sitting at His feet.  He is explaining Him, God the Father.

Spend all that is in you 

and pour it at His feet.

Sit.  Stay.  Wait.