By: Rex Stump
I looked outside the window and saw a large ball of fur in our yard. It looked like an animal, but I couldn’t see its head.
I grabbed my baseball bat and cautiously went outside. I poked it and it made a faint growl, and it slowly moved. It then became clear to me this was a big cat.
I also realized this large cat had its head inside a tin can. Deprived of oxygen, blinded by the can, and bewildered in its surroundings. Lacking oxygen and vision, it would die, unless someone helped.
I removed the can from the head of the cat. Dazed and confused, it looked at me, a matted can-shaped head, with green beans sticking to his face.
Shaking his head, as if to regain its focus, it darted to the field and attempted to dive through the wire fencing.
He missed and jumped smack dab into a post. It fell, shook his head, crawled through the fence, and ran away.
Sometimes, like the cat, we have our heads buried in the things of this world, blinding us to the right paths of life, suffocating us from righteous living. God wants to rescue us, but we forget the power and love of God and run away.
In Exodus 32 we find the account of when God’s people, who witnessed the unfailing love and power of God, felt abandoned by God. Moses went up a mountain to receive God’s commands.
But in his absence the people asked Aaron to make a statue of a cow. Using gold, they made a false idol. Multiple times they witnessed God’s power and faithfulness, yet foolishly they choose a metal cow to worship! Like the cat, they ran from the one who rescued them.
John 1:14, The Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We observed His glory, the glory as the One and Only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14 is so powerful, as it reminds us of that mountain moment. The people cried out for the presence of Moses. “Come down, be with us!”
In John 1:14, we read that God Himself comes down to us! The Word, God, became flesh and bone! The divine collides with humanity!
We are told that God made his home, He pitched His tent, He took up residence among us! He left heaven to be among us! Why? He is full of love! He is faithful to His promises.
John 1:17, For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ.
Moses went up the mountain to get the laws of God, and he came down with those laws. But when Jesus came down to us, from heaven, He delivered God’s unfailing love and faithfulness!
God left the splendor of Heaven, became man, and lived among us, as Jesus! He is powerful, loving, and faithful. Don’t run from Him, run to Him!
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Rex Stump is the Area Director for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and serves as a Pastor at True North Church in Wauseon, Ohio.