I am intrigued about Nicodemus. After Nicodemus questions Jesus in John 3, we don't get to hear how the story turns out. We get some clues in John 7 and John 12 - Nicodemus defends Jesus' right to be heard, and goes with Joseph of Arimathea to prepare Jesus' body for burial. Both times, he is refered to as "Nicodemus, who first came to Jesus by night."
That really stuck with me. If I were to be identified by how I first came to Jesus, what would it be? As I thought it over, I finally decided on: "Rosa, who first came to Jesus in desperation."
And I was desperate. Although I was raised in church, I kept God at a distance. I didn't pursue intimacy with Him. And my life fell apart. Several years and a divorce later, I found myself remarried and desperate to avoid the regrets of the past. I turned back to my childhood faith, this time with a desperation for God's presence and Word. I began to walk with Him and grow in Him, and to see Him work and move in my life. For the first time, I felt truly like a new creation.
I want to keep that feeling before me - that desperation that first brought me to Him. I imagine Nicodemus being introduced in heaven to the Father - "This is the one who came to me at night". I want Jesus to say, "This is Rosa, who was desperate for me every day of her life."
What goes in your blanks? As you write yourself into the story of salvation, how would you be defined? Or how do you want to be defined?
May it ever be so.
1 comment:
Good stuff again. Just shows that
the things that perhaps Satan throws at us to destroy us can be
mightily used of God to draw us unto Himself ie prison sentences,
terminal cancer, divorce, financial
ruin, various addictions etc etc.
Had a young man (30) dying with cancer, leaving behind a wife & young son, say that it was the best thing that ever happened to him as it brought him back to the Lord!!
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