I always wonder how people relate to the Lord in their personal inner selves. Do they talk to a modern image of Jesus or to a Jesus in Biblical robes. Do they even talk to an image or just an idea of Jesus through the words He spoke or the character He showed us through scripture. How do people relate to the always present, always available, always involved, perfect God through His Holy Spirit in the middle of their imperfect lives? How do they reconcile their imperfection to His always present perfection. How does Jesus constantly communicate through the darkness to create His light in us, despite all the clutter and misunderstandings we must carry toward Him and the heaven that is our future? Weighty questions for me. Maybe I don’t need to know the answer to them for anyone other than myself as I discover Christ living within me as I grow forward.

I often think of Jesus coming and living inside me as He came and lived physically on this planet. He walked the roads and paths of Israel doing amazing things. He walks through my soul doing amazing things. Jesus was in ministry for three years on earth as the physical Jesus, even though He was there at creation and all other times. He walks in any time, experience, thought, or anything else in my soul any time He wants. He was at my beginning and is at my end, and all times in between. There is a definite ability to create a comparison of Jesus’ life in me to His ministry on earth with the apostles.

People, even His disciples, were unaware of the immeasurable power and authority Jesus had. They argued, misunderstood, were amazed, and frightened by things Jesus did. He often had to pull them aside and explain things so the disciples could understand. They spent a lot of time with Him doing menial and uneventful things, like walking from city to city, eating, and other common life activities. I find all this comforting. Were I truly aware of the power, authority, and presence of the Lord who has chosen to make my heart a manger for His birth into my life, were I truly aware of all that He is and has made available in my life, all the time, I can not imagine how I, or anyone else, could function. Jesus, who could overwhelm the entire planet, chose not to overwhelm His disciples. He put enough of Himself on display to grow them into an eternal awareness of who He is, but was so gentle that He did not crush them with His glory.

There are moments in my life that are every bit as exciting as the feeding of the 5,000 or the healing of the lepers. There are times in my life in which I walk with Him, unaware of His constant presence. There are times that I am aware that I am in training and being taught or corrected. There are times I read scripture in which it seems electric, right out of Jesus’s mouth. There are times that reading scripture is a discipline that might show me something sometime. I walk with Jesus as the disciples did, experiencing the quiet non-descript moments to the moments that I, like the disciples, say/think “Who is this man that even the seas and waves obey Him.”

One of the most amazing proofs to me of the greatness of Jesus is His tenderness. I am a broken person with all the faults common to humanity. Jesus came into my life and walks with me, transforming my life. Yet, like when He came to walk on the planet, He choses to work with me gently without crushing me with His greatness. I consider that this world wants all the power it can get and to wield it without control. I see Jesus with all the power which could ever be gained, gently, with great tenderness and control, shepherding His many children into heaven. Jesus is truly worthy of worship.