Friday in the first week of Lent

Psalm 40 • Deuteronomy 10:12-22 • Hebrews 4:11-16 • John 3:22-36          

While John baptizes on one side of the Jordan and Jesus on the other, John catches onto the ploy of others to incite jealousy, and yet he is clear that the important one is not himself, but Jesus. He models commitment and service, and even leadership, and then he is able to step aside when Jesus enters.

As John, we are encouraged to have courage and confidence to walk in the ways “of our living active God, to love him, to serve the Lord our god with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands.” Beginning from a narrow, human perspective, the perspective gradually widens and it becomes increasingly inclusive and expansive.

In walking in the ways of Christ, we are also reassured of the vastness and the steadfastness of the love of Christ, and the ever-present grace beginning with our ancestors shepherded through Egypt who have become “as numerous as the stars in the sky.”

Moving from this limited and human perspective that we experience with John at the river and on this earth, we are taken to the broader arena and breadth of Christ’s love, and we are able to both recognize and appreciate all that is given to us. Although thought of and expressed in quantifiable “earthly” terms, no number and no words can accurately describe what is there for us.

“Many, O Lord my God are the wonders you have done.

The things you planned for us no one can recount to you;

 were I to speak and tell of them they would be too many to declare.”

Convincingly, God is ever-present, seeing all, knowing all, understanding all, without number or impartiality, provided that we, like John are able to step aside when Jesus enters.

— Kelley Lewis