Artist: Alexander Beridze
(Image from Wikimedia Commons)
I read on another blog today, the story of someone doing a pastoral internship who was very frustrated by the need to have patience with a mentally handicapped man who liked to hang around the church. Finally the intern asked the supervising priest how he managed so well.
"Well," [the priest] said, "he’s Jesus."I was taught this many, many years ago when I was child. I'm not very good at it at all. And, yet, knowing that this is what it's all about brings me great consolation.
Before [the intern] could fall into a deep hole of guilt and pointless shame, [the supervisor] added this... The secret to a successful Christian life, he said, is seeing the face of Jesus in others and also knowing that you are Jesus’ face to someone else.
~~~
Yes. And I'm not very good at it either.
ReplyDeleteMany teachers have said people come into our lives for a reason and I do believe that principal. How much more meaning there is to that belief if I am seeing the face of Jesus in each one no matter how different. It reinforces something I once read in a book by Walter Wink, "You get the Jesus you need". That simple sentence blew my mind to the point of sleeplessness for a while. Along with this, it makes even more sense. If everyone I encounter is being sent into my life for a reason and I see the face of Jesus in them, then am I not receiving the Jesus I need each and every day? A very fluid and ever changing Jesus, but the Jesus I need, not the one I want, every day. I think I am very ashamed and humbled.
ReplyDeleteCarolyn L.
Gosh, I had not come across that observation by Walter Wink before. Thanks so much for sharing that, Carolyn!
ReplyDelete