I saw You
today in my heart and I wept knowing
As more
believe, the tree that bore Your weight keeps growing.
I saw the
love flow from the deepest
Well within
Your soul - Your salvation for us all.
My heart
was rent knowing Your pain
And the
tears You spilt on that day remain.
They are
the gems I treasure in my heart…
I am one of
Your many children of light.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: The Way In The Wilderness by Chris Brazelton)
You carried your precious
boy
So close to your beating
heart,
Hoping it would protect
Him
From the fate that would
tear you apart.
You stood weeping at the
foot of the cross
In the valley of
humiliation and death,
Your pain and sorrow
unable to suppress.
You are a mother, like no
other……
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Pieta by Rose Datoc Dall)
The most exhilarating part of the Saviour's earthly life would have to be
post resurrection.
Imagine abandoning your profession to be an
apostle of a man who claimed to be the Son of God. Imagine all the time you
have put in being His disciple, all the hope you had in His promises and His
teachings. Imagine the tutoring and the love you have experienced at His side.
Then imagine all of that coming to an end as
you saw Him crucified. Imagine having
your witness of His divinity crushed as you saw Him dying on the cross because
He would not fight back. Most likely an enormous wave of doubt would flood your
whole being. Could the Romans, who were mere men, kill Christ if He was really
God?
All hope seemed to be gone. Then on the third
day, the grief would not end for the Master whom His disciples loved was gone
from the sepulcher where He lay. With haste Peter and John ran to see for
themselves the emptiness of the tomb with no doubt the Master’s words echoing
in their ears:
“A little while and ye shall not see me: and
again, a little while, and ye shall see me…..ye shall weep and lament….and ye
shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy” (John 16:16,20). Did
they run to that tomb with hope against hope in His saying that He must rise
again from the dead??? (John 20:9). Was it really true???
This was the moment in time when the lives of
Peter and John changed forever. The Saviour’s life came to an end but theirs
was just beginning. Imagine their joy and excitement as they saw their beloved
Master again, in His immortal body, and were given the understanding of the
scriptures which spoke of His death and rising from the dead the third day (Luke
24:45,46).
The third time Jesus showed himself to His
disciples at the sea of Tiberias, He made it clear what their mission was.
Lacking in direction, Peter and some of the Twelve went fishing (John 21:1-3).
After all, this is what they knew best but that night they caught nothing.
When in the morning they saw Jesus standing on
the shore, they followed his instruction to cast the net on the right side of
the ship and when they did so, the net came up full for ‘the multitude of
fishes’ (John 21: 6). This was the lesson: they were to ‘feed His sheep’ and be
the fishers of men (vs 15-17)
Peter and John were spiritually transformed
following the ascension of Him whom they called the Beloved Master (Luke 8:24; Mark
9:5; 13:1; John 13:13). A leader in his own right, appointed by the Saviour
himself to hold the keys of the Kingdom (Matthew 16:13-19), Peter became a
spiritual giant whose very shadow was believed would heal the sick in the
streets (Acts 5:15).
He accepted graciously the manner of his death
as foretold by Jesus (John 21:18,19; 2 Peter: 1:13, 14) and died in Rome during
the reign of emperor Nero in 64 A.D. In the Roman Empire, crucifixions took
many shapes which are too indelicate to mention (Seneca, Dialogue “To Marcia on
Consolation”, in Moral Essays, 6.20.3).
According to tradition, Peter was crucified
upside down, a death of his choice having felt unworthy to die in the same manner
as his Master. Perhaps his three denials of Him echoed in his pool of memories
to the very end (John 13:38; Mark 14:66-72).
And what can we say of John, the most beloved
disciple (John 21:7,20) whom the Saviour named the Son of Thunder (Luke
9:52-56: Mark 3:17)? He who lives
still and sorrows for the sins of the world. Peter chose a speedy death to be
reunited with the Beloved Master but John chose a more noble path by remaining
on the earth to bring souls unto Him until the end of the world. I am in awe of
John the Beloved.
I am grateful for the legacy these men left
behind, a legacy of faith and works and their powerful testimonies in the words
that I am privileged to read.
I had three images for this post. All three
done by different artists depicting amazing emotion of expectation and hope of
Peter and John as they ran towards the sepulcher. I couldn’t choose which one
to use. In the end I used all three across my three platforms, my personal FB
page, my FB Group and my Blog. I imagine myself running, like them, when my
time comes, to fall at the feet of my Saviour who lives…..
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: The Sepulcher by Dan Bur)
He Is Risen…..
The suffering endured
The power displayed
The love manifested
(Tad R. Callister, The Infinite Atonement)
(Matthew 28:6)
The Hope of Israel
King of Nations
The Lord of Hosts
Eternal King
The Son of God
The Balm of Gilead
The Son of Man of Holiness
The King of Zion
The Rock of Heaven
The Son of Righteousness
The Great I am
The Good Shepherd
The Stone of Israel
The Son of Man
The Great Amen
The Mighty One of Jacob
The Shepherd of Israel
The Word of Life
Man of Counsel
The Bright and Morning Star
The Holy One
Endless
Eternal
Messiah
The Lamb of God
The Great Jehovah
The Rock of Our Salvation
The liberator of
the captive, the succor of the weak, the balm of the afflicted, the well of all
perfection, the fountain of all righteousness…..
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Jesus Ascends by Chris Brazelton)
With what heavy steps
You approached the garden’s gate!
You suffered, You atoned,
You hung lifeless on the cross,
As you met Your appointed fate.
I waited for my turn on earth
And watched with angels
Your rise from the darkened tomb
That could not contain
The magnitude of You.
I saw Your glory that shone so bright
Defeating death and making all anew
And I wept for the greatness of hope
That rose with You.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: On The Third Day by Greg Collins)
The wounds He earned so long ago
Are with Him still today;
The tears are shed for evermore
For lambs that go astray.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Jesus Wept by Mindi Oaten)
"There
is a story told that a company of botanists seeking some special flowers up in
the Canadian Rockies, came one day to a very rare flower down on the side of a
cliff. To reach it they would have to retrace their steps and go back ten
miles to come up from the valley below. Someone suggested that if they
had a rope they could let a boy down to pick the specimens. That
suggestion was prompted by the fact that a little boy had been following them
for about an hour, watching them silently. They got the rope and said:
'Here lad,
we'll give you $5 if you will put this rope around you and permit us to let you
down to get those flowers'. Without saying a word the lad scampered off.
They thought they had frightened him. He went to a house nearby and
soon came back with a man by his side. Then the little fellow answered: ‘You
may put that rope around me, and I'll get the flower, if you'll let my dad hold
the rope'." (President David O. McKay, CR. April 1944)
When you
study the scriptures you can see so clearly the intimate and close connection
the Saviour had with the Father whilst in mortality. He spoke of Him incessantly.
Once I counted 163 references that He made to the Father during His visit to
the Americas. Fifteen of those referenced His obedience to Him which included
the sacrifice He was to offer and save the rest of us (John 10:17-18).
The
closeness Jesus felt to the Father during His life was such that when He told
His disciples that they will scatter and leave Him in the end, He said with
assurance: “….yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me” and “He that
sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those
things that please Him (John 8:29; 16:32).
This is a clear indication that Jesus felt sure the Father would
be with Him during His atoning sacrifice and so perhaps it was not just sheer obedience
but also trust that there will be a rope around Him to the very end. Perhaps this
trust played a big part in enabling Him to say, “not mine, but Thy will be done” as He began to submit
to His excruciating ordeal (Matthew 26:39).
Imagine
then the shock when He was descending into the bottomless pit of human
suffering to discover there was no rope around Him, like in the Garden, and no
Father to catch Him….when He uttered that heart breaking question asking why the
Father had forsaken Him (Matthew 27:46). There are reasons why it had to be so
but the startling point is, the Saviour was utterly and totally alone.
Here
again there had to be trust even though the rope was not there. There had to be
trust that He could finish His crucible until every soul was atoned for and
until He could give His all in the voluntary surrender of His life (John
10:18). There had to be trust until He could say: “It is finished” (John 19:30)
I
have been puzzled by the concept of suffering my entire life. I used to think
there had to be a better way to exaltation, for the Saviour and for us. Over
time I received glimpses here and there about that necessity but none of these intellectual
explanations seemed to make a dent into my understanding pertaining to my life. The other day I had a
revelation about it so intense and so poignant that it took the explanation of
my life to another level.
Through
it I learnt something extremely important: the Eternal Father knows me to the
depths of my soul and the plan for my life which I agreed to before I was born
was so finely crafted that it has the power to prepare me for something much
greater. I came away from that experience sobbing and understanding His mercy
for the life He had planned for me. All I have to do is trust that there is a
rope around my waist like Christ ‘who for the joy that was set before him
endured the cross’ (Hebrews 12:2).
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Thy Will Be Done by Jay Bryant Ward)
Imagine abandoning your life’s work to be an
apostle of a man who claimed to be the Son of God. Imagine all the hours you
have put in being His disciple, all the hope you had in His promises and His
teachings. Imagine the tutoring and the love you have experienced at His side.
Then imagine all of that coming to an end as
you saw Him crucified. Imagine having your witness of His divinity
crushed as you saw Him dying on the cross because He would not fight back. All
your belief in His divinity would be crushed and an enormous wave of doubt
would flood your whole being. Could the Romans, who were mere men, kill Christ
if He were really God?
All hope seemed to be gone. Then on the third
day, the grief would not end for the Master whom His disciples loved was gone
from the sepulchre where He lay. With haste Peter and John ran to the sepulchre
with eagerness, no doubt with the Master’s words echoing in their ears:
“A little while and ye shall not see me: and
again, a little while, and ye shall see me…..ye shall weep and lament….and ye
shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy” (John 16:16,20). Did
they have hope in His saying that He must rise again from the dead as they ran
to that tomb??? (John 20:9).
This was the moment in time when the lives of
Peter and John changed forever. The Saviour’s life came to an end but theirs
was just beginning. They saw their beloved Master again, in His immortal body,
and were given the understanding of the scriptures which spoke of His death and
rising from the dead the third day (Luke 24:45,46).
The third time Jesus showed himself to His
disciples at the sea of Tiberias, He made it clear what their mission was.
Lacking in direction, Peter and some the Twelve went fishing (John 21:1-3).
After all, this is what they knew best but that night they caught nothing.
When in the morning they saw Jesus standing on
the shore, they followed his instruction to cast the net on the right side of
the ship and when they did so, the net came up full of ‘the multitude of fishes’
(John 21: 6). This was the lesson: they were to ‘feed His sheep’ and be the
fishers of men (vs 15-17)
Peter and John were spiritually transformed
following the ascension of Him whom they called the Beloved Master (Luke 8:24; Mark
9:5; 13:1; John 13:13). A leader in his own right, appointed by the Saviour
himself to hold the keys of the Kingdom (Matthew 16:13-19), Peter became a
spiritual giant whose very shadow was believed would heal the sick in the
streets (Acts 5:15).
He accepted graciously the manner of his death
as foretold by Jesus (John 21:18,19; 2 Peter: 1:13, 14) and died in Rome during
the reign of emperor Nero in 64 A.D. In the Roman Empire, crucifixions took
many shapes which are too indelicate to mention (Seneca, Dialogue “To Marcia on
Consolation”, in Moral Essays, 6.20.3).
According to tradition, Peter was crucified
upside down, a death of his choice having felt unworthy to die in the same manner
as his Master. Perhaps his three denials of Him echoed in his pool of memories
to the very end (John 13:38; Mark 14:66-72).
And what can we say of John, the most beloved
disciple (John 21:7,20) whom the Saviour named the Son of Thunder (Luke
9:52-56: Mark 3:17)? He who lives
still and sorrows for the sins of the world. Peter chose a speedy death to be
reunited with the beloved Master but John chose a more noble path by remaining
on earth to bring souls unto Him until the end of the world. I am in awe of
John the Beloved.
I am grateful for the legacy these men left
behind, a legacy of faith and works and their powerful testimonies in the words
that I am privileged to read.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Hope by Liz Lemon Swindle)
I cannot celebrate the Saviour’s birth without being reminded of His death. Every time I see the baby in the manger these words echo in my mind: “To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world….” (John 18:37). You cannot have birth without death and you cannot have death without birth.
When I think of both, my consolation comes from remembering that the jubilation of Christ’s birth was outdone by the jubilation upon His return in triumph beyond the veil. Imagine the tears of sorrow at the cross and compare them to tears of celebration and gratitude that greeted the Saviour as He entered the spirit world:
“And there were gathered together in one place an innumerable company of the spirits of the just, who had been faithful in the testimony of Jesus while they lived in mortality…they were filled with joy and gladness and were rejoicing together because the day of their deliverance was at hand….while this vast multitude waited and conversed, rejoicing in the hour of their deliverance from the chains of death, the Son of God appeared, declaring liberty to the captives who had been faithful…..
“And the saints rejoiced in their redemption, and bowed the knee and acknowledged the Son of God as their Redeemer, and Deliverer from death and the chains of hell. Their countenances shone and the radiance from the presence of the Lord rested upon them, and they sang praises unto His holy name….” (D&C 138:12-18; 23-24)
And what of us who had not yet been born into mortality? We who awaited the return of Him who knew our earthly lives before we did? I imagine the gratitude would have been overwhelming. I imagine we fell down before Him in adoration and praise, knowing our salvation was secure and that the Atonement was fixed and in place to enable us to endure our tribulations and resist the evil forces that would seek to destroy us.
I imagine that the very heavens echoed the
shouts of our praise. I imagine we wept tears of exquisite joy as we saw our
God take His place upon His throne and I imagine all eternity shook as we cried
with one voice: “Glory and honour, and power, and might, be ascribed to our God…..let
the sun, moon and morning stars sing together and let all the sons of God shout
for joy! And let the eternal creations declare his name forever and ever!”
(D&C 84:102; 128:23)
Did you miss Your throne divine
When You crossed the threshold of the stable?
And did You clutch my
worth inside You
That made Your mortal task divinely able?
I heard the angels in the field
Sing praises to Your name;
And I sorrowed knowing, like holy water,
Your love would spill on sacrificial altar.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Jesus Ascends by Chris Brazelton)
I have always been amazed at the humiliation that the Saviour must have suffered at the hands of His captors prior to the crucifixion.
Mark records that after His arrest, Jesus was brought into the palace of the high priest (Mark 14:53,54) where a mockery of a trial was conducted condemning Him to death and where His accusers ‘began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to buffet him….and the servants did strike him with the palms of their hands’ (v 65).
Luke records that ‘the men that held Jesus mocked him, and smote him, and when they had blindfolded him, they struck him on the face and asked him, saying, Prophesy, who is it that smote thee? And many other things blasphemously spake they against him’ (Luke 22:63-65).
Imagine a God who creates worlds, controls the elements, performs miracles, and has the power to subdue all enemies under His feet, allowing and enduring such humiliation at the hands of pathetic, weak and sinful humans. That’s godly self-control and godly focus without which He could not have submitted himself to the greatest act of mercy ever.
The treatment that Christ endured at the hands of His captors was nothing compared to Gethsemane from which He had just come. The experience of the Garden was ‘the hour of His DEEPEST humiliation’ (Jesus the Christ, p 611).
In that hour of anguish Christ met and overcame all the horrors that Satan, “the prince of this world”, could inflict’ (Jesus the Christ, p 613). Imagine a man who would NEVER do anything wrong, to any degree, taking upon himself all the existent sins as if He had committed them Himself.
The spiritual anguish He suffered was no doubt due to all the corroding feelings associated with sin such as guilt, shame, embarrassment, lack of esteem, self-hatred, fear of God’s wrath….indeed, deepest humiliation for one so sinless. Following the humiliation of Gethsemane, would any other be worse???
But
then there is Golgotha…..where like a criminal He was nailed to a cross on the
side of the road for all to see His nakedness and His suffering. And as the
Roman custom demanded, a plaque nailed
to the cross outlining all his crimes, only He had committed none…..so what would
have been on His plaque? My sins, your sins, our families’ sins, our nation’s
sins, the world’s sins and the sins of all mankind from Adam to the end of the
world.
Will the
sinner for whom you suffered,
Who
rejected and reviled Thee
Weep in
the end for Thy pain and Thy sorrow?
Will his
heart understand
When he
kneels before Thee
The debt
he owes for the existence
Of his
merciful tomorrow?
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Behold the Man by Christopher Young)
Out of all my childhood memories, I cherish the ones
of Easter the most. I was born and raised in Croatia. I was 13 years old when my family
immigrated to Australia. What remains etched in my heart the most
about the home of my birth is the land and its’ nature….every wheat field I ran
through, every tree I climbed, every patch of grass with blooming spring
flowers……it is all so firmly locked in my heart and it is evoked at Easter
time.
When I read the Bible, I know what harvests are and what seasonal
festivals are and what shepherds are. And I understand many spiritual truths
that were taught by the Saviour using the metaphors that related to agrarian
way of life. I know all this because of my homeland of Croatia. I know it
because I grew up with it.
Easter was a magical time in my youth. It was a time when
winter left and spring came and all that was dead under the snow came to life. A time when violets emerged from the earth and the
spring flowers adorned the countryside to herald a renewal of life. It was a
time when baby chicks were born so no chocolate, only hard-boiled eggs we
decorated to help us remember the new birth. A time when my mother made sure my
sisters and I had a brand-new dress to wear to Church Sunday morning with our
Easter fare in a basket for the priest to bless. It was a time when spring air
was the strongest. I cannot remember it ever raining on Easter Sunday. The sun
shone always, like it wanted to remind us that it was a day of re-birth.
Such a fitting time for a resurrection, when nature bloomed
and new life awakened. It was a time for me when nature allowed me to see His
glory. Easter Sundays for me overshadowed Good Friday and Christ’s death. As
important as that was, Easter Sundays were what I remembered the most because the happiness and
knowledge of Christ’s resurrection whispered in spring air.
Now that I am an adult and understand the hope of
resurrection for myself, my heart is full of gratitude and hope for the new life
that the Saviour has made possible. I know that He lives and has overcome the
sting of death for my sake. The suffering He bore to make that possible is
something I can never repay but the power He gained to exalt me on high is
something I will be grateful for forever.
When You rose from Your grave
With healing in Your wings,
With the crucible of the cross
Forever etched in Your memory;
Did I live on in Your heart
As you ascended to Your throne
To seal your eternal fame?
I bow before Thy greatness;
I bow before Thy holy name.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Clothed in Glory by Chris Brazelton)
Imagine
this mortal experience being wasted. All your learning, your progress, your
growth, your suffering, your family associations, disappearing and coming to
naught. What a fruitless and nonsensical exercise this life would be! But the
approaching Easter stands before us as a symbol of the greatest hope ever given
to mortal men. What is that hope? It is the promise of immortality through the
Atonement of the Saviour Jesus Christ. One part of the Atonement in particular,
the Resurrection.
From
Elder Dallin H. Oaks: “I wonder if we fully appreciate the enormous
significance of our belief in a literal, universal resurrection. The assurance
of immortality is fundamental to our faith. The Prophet Joseph Smith declared: “The
fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and
Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the
third day, and ascended into heaven, and all other things which pertain to our
religion are only appendages to it” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith,
sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [1976], p 121). Of all things in that glorious
ministry, why did the Prophet Joseph Smith use the testimony of the Saviour’s
death, burial and resurrection as the fundamental principle of our religion,
saying that all other things….are only appendanges to it? The answer is found
in the fact that the Saviour’s Resurrection is central to what the prophets
have called ‘the great and eternal plan of deliverance from death’ (2 Nephi
11:5) (In CR Apr 2000, 17; or Ensign May 2000, p 15)
This
is the importance of deliverance from death: “….if the flesh should rise no
more our spirits must become subject to that angel who fell from before the
presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil, to rise no more. And our
spirits must have become like unto him and we become devils, angels to a devil,
to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father of
lies, in misery, like unto himself…..” (2 Nephi 9:8-9). Imagine that as our
eternal destiny!
The
Saviour’s resurrection offers us something that nothing else can, it offers us
a fulness of joy forever (D&C 93:33-34). This is the power of the
resurrection for each of us:
We
are born into corruption but raised to incorruption;
We
are born into dis-honour but raised to glory.
We
are born into weakness but raised to power.
(1 Corinthians 15:42, 43)
May we look past the Easter bunny and the chocolate, even past the crucifixion and all the suffering and look towards the greatest hope for all humankind, the gift of resurrection. And may we thank our God for it every day, now and forever…..
With what heavy steps
You approached the garden’s gate!
You suffered, You atoned,
You hung lifeless on the cross,
As you met Your appointed fate.
I waited for my turn on earth
And watched with angels
Your rise from the darkened tomb
That could not contain
The magnitude of You.
I saw Your glory that shone so bright
Defeating death and making all anew
And I wept for the greatness of hope
That rose with You.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Clouds of Heaven by Chris Brazelton)
As Easter approaches and many of us are struggling with ever increasing hardships, may we reflect on all that the Saviour suffered in HIS hard life:
We all know how the story ended.....the climax of His life, the crucible of Gethsemane and Calvary.....surely He who has 'borne our griefs and carried our sorrows' (Isaiah 53:4) has the ability to empower us to weather our storms and bear us up to endure the vicissitudes of life in these the last days.....
Be strong no matter what happens and believe……
I was tempted my problems
To lay to Your charge,
I considered them acutely unfair;
Then You opened my heart
And showed me Your godly task
Beyond human capacity to bear.
Knowing where you had gone
I would never need to go,
I sorrowed and sought my arrogance to bury;
In humility I assent ,
Your mortal burden:
So valiant, so holy
I would never in this life have to carry.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Jon McNaughton)
The year I studied animal sacrifice in depth, I came to understand the Atonement at a deeper level. I was absolutely mesmerised by this practice and longed to witness it in the flesh because I am a highly visual person and I love symbolism. Understanding animal sacrifice has made me see the necessity of the principle of consecration in my life.
This is what touched me the most: A part of the animal sacrifice ceremony included the priest applying a small amount of animal’s blood to the tip of the right ear, the right thumb and the great toe of the right foot of the person to be consecrated. This is what it meant:
· On the tip of the ear: sanctifying the organ of hearing God’s word;
· On the thumb of right hand: sanctifying the organ of action;
· On the great toe of right foot: sanctifying the organ of walking and following God.
I tremble at the thought of having such highly significant symbol of Christ’s sacrificial blood being applied to me. When I read this I wondered how I could apply this symbolism to my personal consecration and it came to me that just as Christ sacrificed Himself totally and completely for my sake, my sacrifice to Him must be through: my thoughts, my speech, my attitudes, my beliefs, my desires, my intents, my actions. My mind is taken back to His sacrifice in my daily prayers as I promise to consecrate myself to the Father in thought, word and deed and promise to walk in paths of righteousness. I cannot utter these words without the image of the priest applying sacrificial blood to my ear, thumb and toe.
The Saviour expects nothing of us that He himself did not do. Consider His total consecration to the Father which made Him ‘the lamb without blemish’ (1 Peter 1:19): “Had there been one thought in the mind of Jesus which was not perfectly given to God; had there been but one affection in the heart of Jesus which was not yielded to His Father’s will; had there been one step in the walk of Jesus which was taken not for God, but for His own pleasure; then He could not have offered Himself or been accepted as a ‘whole burnt- offering….but Jesus gave up all: He reserved nothing. All was burnt, all consumed, upon the altar.” (Jukes, Law of the Offerings, pp 63-64).
This Easter as we contemplate His total consecration to God on our behalf, may we commit to consecrate ourselves each day to walk in His footsteps and be deserving of every drop so precious and pure that paved the way to Calvary.
Thy infinite mercy
Thy limitless goodness
Thy bountiful compassion,
A gift to him who loveth Thee;
Trailing from the cross of Calvary,
Sealed with Your hour of agony.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Artist unknown)
I read a scripture this morning that brought tears to my eyes. The occasion was Jacob’s journey to Egypt to be reunited with his beloved son Joseph. When Jacob came to Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to God and God came to him ‘in the visions of the night’ and called him: “Jacob, Jacob” and Jacob answered: “HERE AM I” (Genesis 46:2). When he arrived in Egypt and the Pharoah asked him how old he was, Jacob answered, 130 ‘evil’ years but in Hebrew the correct translation is ‘sorrowful’ or ‘full of toil and trouble’ (OT Institute Manual, (8-20) p. 97). Consider how hard Jacob’s life was: he had to leave home to escape his brother Esau who sought to kill him; he served Laban for 20 years who constantly cheated him of his wages; he had to deal with constant contention between his wives; his pilgrimage in the land of Canaan; the death of his wife Rachel; and sorrowing for Joseph for 16 years. Never before has the story of Jacob touched me to the depths of my heart like it has this year. After all the hardship he suffered, Jacob was still able to respond ‘here am I’, with readiness to obey whatever God wanted of him. It has made me reflect on my own willingness to answer such a call despite my shallow belief that I have already given ‘my all’. If I was called, would I start recounting all my trials and sacrifices or would I only utter, “here am I”…….
I have noticed this answer to God’s call with other notable people in the scriptures, namely: Moses (Exodus 3:4); Samuel (1 Sam. 3:4); Isaiah (Isa. 6:8) but the most poignant would have to be this one: “HERE AM I, SEND ME” (Abraham 3:27). No greater example of readiness to honour the Father exists than that of the Saviour who I am sure did not hesitate to first count the cost of His offer. He would go no matter how thorny the road and how heavy the cross. He would go and He would do. As we near Easter, may we reflect on this offer without which there would be no mortality, no salvation, no joy. Without this offer there would be no us.
Who is like unto Thee, O Lord,
Among the gods?
Who shelters Thine own
In the depths of Thy heart;
Who reveals the strength
Of Thy holy arm
To protect the weak
And the broken hearted;
Who sorrows for the lost
And pays the price of
The crucible cost.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: King by David Bowman)
