I see Jesus

"One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple." - King David, in Psalm 27:4, which inspired Chandra to write it

"I am speechless. This is incredible. From beginning to end. From 'it's all about leisure with us' on your walks, to the specific insight & creativity of your son, and the attentiveness & appreciation of his mom. I love you for sharing this with me. I must repeat it. Thank you, sis..." - Yours Truly, in an email back to Chandra, who wrote the below story to me today

 

"Hey Brian, I wanted to tell you how your lesson tonight struck me personally.  I thought I would talk to you after services, but having two little boys to keep an eye on proved to be more consuming of my attention than I would have preferred. You spoke tonight about seeing Jesus everywhere we go, about dwelling, lingering, on the beautiful sight.  All I could think about was when I took my kids on a walk last night.  It was evening actually, the sun still bright, but very low in the sky.  Canon, Creed, and I were on the tail end of our walk around the block.  It's all about leisure with us - we stop cold if a car is a coming, a puppy is within petting distance, a helicopter flies overhead, a particularly fascinating acorn is laying on the sidewalk, or if Canon thinks Anna Street is as good a place as any to teach me how to do the "cha-cha" that he learned at pre-school that day.  At this point, it was a two-foot brick wall dividing one yard from the other.  The boys climbed on the wall and made the dramatic jump a couple of times.  I was just fixing to say, "All right, let's keep it moving," when I heard Canon say, "Look Mom, Jesus."  I turned to see Canon standing on the wall, arms outstretched, studying his shadow on the ground.  The low evening sun stretched his shadow all the way across a driveway.  And the three of us stood there and saw a willowy shadow of Jesus.  It was the strangest thing, but the shadow actually looked like Jesus to me.  The cars seemed to stop, the birds seemed to quiet, and the open-armed shadow seemed to be reaching for us.  Sounds weird, I know.  He held the pose for quite a while, time enough for me to shift my gaze to my son, standing on a wall, arms wide, trying to make his shadow look like Jesus.  I don't know if I'm communicating the feeling that hit me.  Somewhere between the pride that my son was quick to see Jesus, the psychological interest that the pose that "looks like Jesus" to him was one with his arms stretched out, and the humility that he spent so much effort making minute changes to his stature to maintain the picture even though he was tiring of the balance on the wall and holding his arms up.  I continue to wonder if I ever spend any effort at all really making sure that my posture, if you will, looks like Jesus. As he climbed down to walk back home, he said, "I looked like Jesus, didn't I?"  I grabbed his hand, "You look just like Jesus to me," I told him. Anyway, I just had to tell you that story - and writing it down will help me remember it, too.  Thanks for the insight into Psalm 27:4!"   - Chandra Perkins  

 

What is there to add?

 

Perhaps we all should just dwell leisurely a bit more, gaze with amazement at the beauty that we walk flippantly and hurriedly by, and seek to see Christ everywhere.

 

SLOW DOWN! LET GO! STOP PRETENDING THAT IT ALL HANGS ON YOU!