God Is So…Personal

I feel so strongly to share this with you… it’s written by Joni Eareckson Tada, a disabled woman whose faith has built up many, including mine.

“When the sun was setting, the people brought to Jesus all who has various kinds of sickness, and laying His hands on each one, He healed them.”

(Luke 4:40)

In Luke 4 everybody from the surrounding countryside brought sick people to see Jesus. Now it could have panned out this way:

          Jesus surveys the crowd and says, “Okay, all you blind people, you sit over here. And everybody who has a contagious disease, you guys sit way over there. Now, where are the deaf? All you deaf people, gather on that hill. Paralyzed people? Calling all paralyzed people! Okay, get yourselves together in a group right in the front here. Now, everybody in position? Are you ready? Here goes!” Then, with a wave of His hand over the crowd, Jesus shouts, “Be healed!”

          Aren’t you glad it didn’t happen that way? No grand-scale miracles of epic proportions were performed by Jesus. Instead He laid His hand on each one who came to Him. His gentle touch healed the deaf, and He had nothing but kind words for blind people who reached out to Him. He ministered to each one…individually. In so doing, He performed divine feats in a loving and highly personal way.

          That’s what I find so amazing about Christ. Although the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him, He didn’t make high drama of it. He glorifies the Father but not in a showy way. Unlike the unapproachable “smoke and fire” of the Old Testament Mount Sinai, Jesus makes Himself approachable through the love and tears of the New Testament Mount Calvary.

That’s the kind of miracle God wants to perform in your life. Today He encounters you with the same tenderness and humanity He showed two thousand years ago. You are not a face in a sea of nameless people whom He divides into groups like the deaf, the blind, and the paralyzed. He wants to give you His highly personal touch.

Lord, I’m grateful I’m not a what’s-his-name in your eyes. I’m not a face in the crowd. You thought of me, formed me, and designed every unique, wonderful bone in my body long before the foundation of the earth. Touch my life today in the personal yet powerful way you have touched people through the ages.

References:

The Holy Bible

More Precious Than Silver, Joni Eareckson Tada (1998)