Deus Ex Machina Washing Machine

There are several times in ones life that we don't want see things as they are.  For example, remember the first time you realized your parents mortality?  Was it prior to their death?  Or was it as a young adult, finally realizing their sacrifice?  Or perhaps in a moment of candor, the realization is clear of their humanity.  It definitely changes our perspective of them.  I think we become a lot less critical of so many things when we understand how frail they are.  We become a lot less critical of ourselves when we realize how frail we are.  I know that doesn't usually add up to the strong, bullet proof, type A personality so many men are inducted.  For example, have you though about Jesus in ways you normally don't imagine Him?  We all want him to be the Prince of Glory, our Savior, ultimate victor of sin and death?  Do you have a hard time imagining him weeping?  How about this one.  Washing the dirty, nasty feet of the apostles?  I have skimmed over that one too many times, but it is significant.  In the grand scheme of things, He was about to die on the cross for our sins, and yet he washes the feet of the apostles.  No sermon.  No hills packed to the gills of people.  An upper room, a towel, a wash pan.  Lesson dispensed.  Pretty simple for him.  But lets not forget that he washed Judas' feet too.  Jesus knew what Judas was struggling with.  Jesus knew what had to be done in order to achieve what he came here for.  The feet he washed were the ones that would walk his betrayer to his deed.

At times we can be uncomfortable with a Savior who is perfect.  It is what we want.  We want that "mountaintop Jesus", we don't want the feet washing Jesus.  The mountaintop Jesus is cool.  He is the man with the solution to whatever you need.  The throngs fawn over the mountaintop Jesus.  The feet washing Jesus looks us as he washes your crusty, dirty feet and doesn't have to say anything.  When the standard is perfection, our smallest sins are magnified.  That's what we don't want to imagine Jesus washing feet.  Eventually, Jesus is shown for what He is, and we are not let down.  We are only challenged by perfection.

3 Going on 30

"Keep the earth below my feet

For all my sweat my blood runs weak

Let me learn from where I have been

Keep my eyes to serve to serve, my hands to learn."

Mumford & Sons

I often wonder what would be happening on this day if we weren't caught up in the remembering.  Would it still be "business as usual"?  Would the incredible blessings that have flowed from excruciating pain have inundated us?  Or would reality be something so incomprehensible, it wouldn't be distinguishable from hades?  Or perhaps happiness unbound?  I guess we will never know.  I guess the great "what ifs" or "coulda's" will never be answered.  Filed permanently under unknown.  Sure, life changes.  It is the only constant, correct?  And while getting used to something isn't the same as accepting something, it is a close second.  How do you celebrate a day like today?  What gift or card is there to give?  There aren't any.  I truly believe the best way to remember someone is take the purest of their essence into your own.  To learn from them the very thing that made them so precious.  

I was talking to someone yesterday, browsing their facebook page.  One of their friends has a child with a major physical deformity.  And I always wonder why God would allow that to happen.  I do, I'm human just as much as you are.  Put down your stone for a second.  While I'm definitely no Bible scholar, I can only surmise a guess.  I get too caught up in the day to day "mission creep" of unappcreciation, that it takes something shocking to pull me back on course.  It is only in seeing the truly shocking that we awaken.  Among many things I have learned the past 3 years, is how quickly it changes.  And the things we take for granted, even the things that we think annoy us, are the things we will miss the most.  So back to this emotional ground zero we come every July.  To remember.  To grasp again at the "why".  To learn.  To appreciate. To miss.

But there will come a time, you'll see

With no more tears

and Love will not break your heart

but dismiss your fears

Get over your hill, and see

what you find there

with Grace in your heart

and flowers in your hair..

Mumford & Son

- After the Storm -