Humans

Humans are strange. Their minds are hard to comprehend.

A familiar friendly face today can so quickly become a stranger.. an enemy the next day.

Life. How funny life is. The most trusted confidante is usually the one with the sharpest sword. You don't have to protect yourself from strangers, they can't crush you. The greatest disappointments come from having the highest expectations, the greatest dependence, the ones most trusted.

But who is not prone to failing?
Which is better then?

To have a heart of stone - emotionally detached but letting nothing hurt you.. or to have a heart of paper - trusting all, yet being vulnerable to disappointments that are bound to happen?

I wonder what was in Jesus' mind when he knew that Judas was going to betray him. He had spent his time and energy with his disciples - loving them, teaching and training them, caring for their needs and speaking up for them before the Pharisees. It was a big investment. Knowing that a recipient of all His love could actually even have the intention of killing him, that is horrible. Heartbreaking, awful, HOW COULD YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT SUCH A THING!?!

I also wonder what goes through God's mind when we first made the decision to turn away from our sins to follow Him wholeheartedly - deny ourselves, pick up our crosses daily to follow Jesus. Surely He must have ALREADY known that we will then go on and worry about handing in that assignment, passing that exam, graduating from uni, getting that job.. getting a job.. any job.., marrying before a certain age, having healthy children, earning enough to feed the family, our children having positive influences, our children handing in that assignment, our children passing that exam, our children graduating from uni, getting any job, our children getting married.. to the right person, our children having children.. life gets so full on, we promise God that we will spend some time speaking to Him in the morning, but its winter and your body just can NOT, for the life of it get up until you are almost late for work. In the daily disappointments or even when life is mundane... we start wondering if God is even real. We laugh at the Israelites worshipping that golden calf made from their own jewelry. They have physically been led and fed by God, HOW can one doubt then? But how disgusting is it that we do the same. One day praising God for His presence in our lives, the next day not believing He exists.

Yet it is for these very disgusting people that Jesus came. For these people that He died for, bearing the punishment for their sins in order that they may receive God's forgiveness. These people whom he loved but was betrayed by. These people..us. These people..me. While I was sinning, God had already chosen to love me and forgive me. Not because I earned His love or His forgiveness, but purely by His grace and mercy.

1John3:1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!"

Matthew 9:12-13 "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick... for I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

The Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl

The Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl (Matthew 13:44-46)
44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

What is our response to the gospel? What is our response to the good news that Jesus, through sacrificing His own life, has redeemed us from an eternal condemnation we had well deserved- the fiery furnace where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth; and instead called us to eternal life in heaven where we dwell in God's presence? How precious is it to us? How much does it matter?

Reading about the man who found the hidden treasure and the merchant who found the fine pearl of great value, I am caused to reflect on what my attitude is in response to the privilege of knowing Christ. Do I hold on to Him like my precious treasure? Am I ready to give up all things for the sake of Christ? The One who had lavished His love on us, not because we earned it, but because of who He is. His love is unconditional, unchanging and everlasting - He is indeed a treasure of great value, of far more worth than anything I can think of.

I also had the chance to hear about another interpretation of the same parable in the last week, talking about how God sees us as His prized possessions, and went to the extent of giving up His son in order to save us. How humbling and mind blowing that it was done out of love, for the sake of sinners. Even though we are like filthy rag cloths and disappoint Him time and again, He had already chosen to love and forgive while we were wading in the pool of sin.

I was reminded of Ice Age, of Scrat and his reckless abandonment of everything around him in pursuit of his acorn. How he'd climb the highest cliff, sail the deepest ocean, traveling far and wide with one sole focus. What amazing determination was demonstrated to acquire what he acknowledged as his treasure. Jesus Christ, the Son of God who sacrificed for me, is a precious treasure worth way more than that acorn, and I would like to pursue Him like how Scrat pursues his acorn.

In the words of apostle Paul in Philippians 3...
7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law,but that which is through faith in[a] Christ—the righteousnessthat comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to knowChrist—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prizefor which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.