through the eyes of Jesus

Then Jesus made a circuit of all the towns and villages. 

He taught in their meeting places, reported kingdom news, and healed their diseased bodies, healed their bruised and hurt lives. 

When he looked out over the crowds, his heart broke. So confused and aimless they were, like sheep with no shepherd. 

The images that have been surfacing from Kieve have been haunting. 

Masterful works of art and light capturing all the real-life drama and emotion of life and death. 

Men with robes and a crucifix standing on a wooden palate. Their Ark. 

Shields, helmets, guns -verses-whatever the hell you can find or steal. 

When I first saw these images my heart was pounding for the valiant priests who stood before the powers of be defiantly waving Jesus, the Prince of Peace, in the midst of hell. 

But today it is different. My eyes have shifted focus. 

I have a coin in my pocket given to me from a friend. It has a cross on the with the image of a Jesus carved through it.  It has the effect that when you look through it you see all the world through Christ's outstretched arms. 

My eyes have shifted focus. 

Look, see Jesus on the cross? He is facing both sides. Nailed, stripped, and beaten. 

The Lamb of God offered for all who would turn to him and be saved. 

  

Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. 

He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak

 and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. 

And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. 

We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. 

But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death 

while we were of no use whatever to him.