A while back I started reading through the Scriptures again. I am following a little guide my Sunday School teacher gave us. The schedule makes me read quite a bit each day. I don't really like that because it makes me feel I am hurrying and I often find interesting things that I think I should consider more thoroughly. But the schedule pulls me on and keeping the schedule has its own benefits.
I guess it must have been Friday or Saturday when I finished the Gospels. The schedule so far is in book order so I read Matthew and then Mark and Luke and, finally, John. The Gospels always remind me of a saying my paternal grandfather taught me more than 50 years ago now. It was a little memory device for the names of the Gospels: "Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; saddle a mule and I'll get on; give me a stick and I'll be gone." Just writing that now makes me smile and remember the image my mind still retains of my Pop.
So I was thinking about the Gospels and the writers and how they are similar but also different. I am fond of each but for different reasons. If I had to choose a favorite it would be John I think. That's because when I first came to believe in The Lord Jesus it was John that I read first. It is a wonderfully eloquent work. It also soars into Theological heights I am unable to conceive much less scale. It opens with "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." That's an amazing concept just in itself.
But for the first time I noticed in this reading that John ends in an interesting way. It concludes with The Lord fixing and eating breakfast with His disciples. A fire is even described.
The entire passage reminded me of The Shack and that cabin on the lake.
I love this passage more now than I ever have before. It is just such a wonderful image of The Lord preparing the fire and the food and then cooking it and then dining with His followers. It is wonderfully comforting and familiar and feels like family to me.
I can't decide if this is more lofty Theology that is just so far above my intellect that I am unable to apprehend it; or, if it is meeting me on a raw, emotional level; or, if it is His Spirit meeting my own; or, all three perhaps.
Regardless it is an image that comforts me more than I can say and for that I am ever so grateful.
Sunday was my mother's birthday. My brother remembered and sent me an email. I liked that.
5 years ago
1 comment:
Your grandfather's saying is so funny. :)
For many years, I felt like there was no point in reading all the gospels because if you read one you had read them all. Then I sat down and read them again this year and for the first time realized how different each one is. My pastor always tells new people at church that if they do nothing else, at least read the gospels.
Now I'm going to have to go check out the end of John since you said it reminds you of the Shack.
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