I saw this quote the other day on Pinterest (just about all this blog's images come from there at that!) and it made a deep impression on me. Mainly because I have experienced this myself. God did this with a gentleness I marveled at--giving me the thrill of having a dream come true, yet at the same time showing me that what I'd been hankering for actually wasn't what I needed (or even wanted, now I'd tasted it, though I'd enjoyed the taste I'd had.)
It's hard to explain, I think, but today a sermon made me reread John 1:45-50, and I saw myself (for the first time) in Nathanael. Nathanael's conversion was pretty dramatic. He was a skeptic. Christ gave him exactly what Nathanael the skeptic thought he needed in order to believe: 'proof' that Jesus was the Son of God. In amazement, Nathanael listened as Christ quietly revealed His omniscience. Small unimportant details yes, but things no human could have known, and that was enough for Nathanael, Nathanael knew nothing of Jesus' character, His life, His teaching, yet he threw himself at Jesus' feet with blind exuberance. Jesus was gentle with Nathanael. He gave him exactly what his human mind demanded. And after Nathanael's 180 degrees, rather comically dramatic turn around from skeptic to fan, Jesus didn't discount his giddy young faith because it was based on such a superficial foundation. He did chide Nathanael, gently, but He also promised him greater grounds for faith--not merely signs and wonders, like magic tricks a boy uses to impress his friends. Jesus taught a gospel that applied to life, to all aspects of life as we knew it--beautiful, ugly, mundane, flawed--not just supernatural wonders that dropped our jaws but didn't really relate very much to our actual lives. I think Nathanael, eventually at least, must have felt much the way I did. Humbled. Grateful. Wiser. Encouraged. And marveling at the gentleness of God. '...Your gentleness has made me great.' Psalm 18:35
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