Can you imagine what it felt like to be living in the days of Jesus, to look back before he started his public ministry, and to realize that you were walking beside him, saying hello, watching him from afar, never knowing he was the Savior of the world?
He seemed so normal. I feel like I would have wished I had hugged him or jumped up and down and ran up to him! To have no idea my Savior was about to save me from all my muck and sin just blows me away. Just the other night at story time, Jesus’ occupation became our topic of discussion. I can’t remember every job my boys named when I asked them what Jesus was before he began his ministry, but I know one of them thought maybe Jesus was a baseball player. :) (We may influence our children with a lot of Texas Ranger baseball.) When we all sank into the realization that Jesus was a carpenter, working with wood, I just felt us all kind of go…wow, a simple carpenter. He didn’t have fancy job titles or where fancy clothes. He didn’t work with a ton of people, in fact, he probably did a lot of his work alone.
One of my sons brought up an interesting question. He said, “What if Jesus carved and built THE cross?” We thought how crazy that would be. God could have had Jesus do anything before he began his public ministry. God chose carpentry. And I wonder if all the wood in that occupation was pointing to the something bigger, the cross, where our very salvation depends.
There’s this link between Jesus’ occupation and Jesus’ mission. And I think, how cool is our God. And sometimes I feel like those people must have felt when they look back and realize that Jesus was walking the same streets they were walking and eating the same food they were eating. He was all around them, but they had no idea this Significance that was passing them in their daily lives. I feel like sometimes I am just beginning to really wake up to the Jesus that’s in me, around me, and all around us.
It’s so easy to walk through our days unaware. It’s so easy to be more focused on earthly things. Earthly: worldy, contemporary, quick-fixes, petty stuff, silly stuff. I often live like I don’t have the Spirit of God in me. I forget. I grow kind of non-chalant about it. But I’m realizing more and more, it’s a really big deal. It’s the biggest deal.
What it would it be like to wake up to the Carpenter that has chosen to enter our very hearts and lives? What would it be like to truly wake up to His presence? What would it feel like? How might our lives look and feel different?
“But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons (or daughters). Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.” Galatians 4:3-7
What would it feel like to really live as God’s sons and daughters? What would it feel like to know that in whatever state we find ourselves in currently, God is using that time to shape us, prepare us, and use us for a greater mission and purpose. Just as God placed Jesus through carpentry first, where does God have you in training for kingdom purposes?
How can we wake up to Jesus? I think He’s waiting for us to really see Him. I think He’s waiting for us to really invite Him into our lives. I think He really wants to move and shift in our lives and to really breathe life into our lives.
Lord, let my heart be fully awake.
Prayer: “Lord, wake me up to Your presence that’s in me and all around me. Don’t let me walk through life unphased by Your glory and power. Don’t let me walk through life unaware of Your nearness. Lord, let me live awake to Your goodness and love and mercy. Let me live as a son, as a daughter, and as an heir. And whatever “carpentry” work You have me in…whatever training ground, let me do my work with excellence, trusting You to shape me and train me for kingdom purposes. Thank You, Lord, for pursuing me. Thank You, Lord, for going from carpentry to Savior out of fierce love for Your sons and daughters.”
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