Celebrate the Seasons – Titus 2

I’m taking my own statement from last week quite literally, folks, so this is very much in the format of a journal entry between me and the Lord. Because I’m still done talking about Him like He’s not in the room. 🙂

“It should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires.”

That’s the first thing Jesus says in the book of Matthew (NLT version of the Bible). Jesus went to His cousin John the Baptizer to be baptized, and John gave some (I’d say, understandable) push back. It says “John tried to talk Him out of it, saying, ‘I’m the one who needs to be baptized by You, so why are You coming to me?” And Jesus answered him as stated above. And that convinced John to go ahead with it.

Jesus, what was that like for You, to have Your first ‘move’ in your adult life/ministry questioned by the very person who was supposed to be preparing the way for You? Maybe John was just literally confused and asking for help to understand, or maybe even to check that his own understanding about the fact that You were/are the Messiah was accurate. I don’t fully understand it myself. You were perfect. John was baptizing people who wanted to show repentance from sin in preparation for the Messiah’s coming. You’d never sinned, so why on earth would You join in with those crowds for that baptism?

Oh whoa, ok is it because You are the second Adam? Living a life of perfect obedience that leads to life, versus the first Adam who disobeyed and brought death into the world? That’s my understanding from the rest of the New Testament of why you lived here for so long. I mean, You could have just been BOOM created a fully grown man, like Adam was. But instead You lived the perfect-est life, from birth to death. And as part of that, even though You didn’t have to, You submitted to a baptism of repentance to give Your future disciples an example to follow? That definitely sounds like You, Lord.

Ok and then the next part, when it says “After His baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on Him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is My dearly loved Son, Who brings me great joy.’”

I think, logically, this statement from Your Father about how He feels about You should be a really good argument for why I should really love You, too. I know not every earthly father has said this kind of thing about their kids. I know there are some right now who maybe never saw or heard their dads suddenly not be able to contain their love for their son or daughter, and then give their overflowing love vent in the form of kind words like, “That’s my girl, you make me so happy.” You know and grieve that with them. But I have. My dad has said those things to me. I can’t know it from a parent’s perspective, since I don’t have children of my own. But I know what it’s like to be the object of that kind of fatherly love. And in my case, it’s not even a tiny bit because I’ve been a perfect child, either as a minor or an adult. Far, far from it. But wow oh wow, just thinking about how big that love is and how that feels when my dad says it out loud…directly to me or indirectly in front of others…I keep having to stop and rub the water out of my eyes so I can see the keys to keep typing, because my dad’s love for me is so stinkin’ precious. (So is my mom’s love! But just thinking right now of heavenly Father & earthly father comparisons). So this stirs stuff up in me. Tears, yes, and I almost can’t get past marveling at how much God loves You, Jesus. You are so dearly loved. You are loved & lovely. Those are words I say to my friends and sisters often. It’s what I want them to know best, first, and always. It’s even become a recognized Joanna-ism with my family members, that I make them look at my eyeballs while I look at their eyeballs and tell them I love them. And they truly are treasured and beautiful, to me, yes, in all sincerity! But way more AND way more potently/weightily by God the Father. And that’s the first thing Your Father said to You when You started publicly preaching the Kingdom: “This is my dearly loved Son, Who brings Me great joy.”

I think that’s my nugget for today; today’s little treasure I’ll pick up and keep in my treasure box along this journey of loving You, Jesus: God the Father loves You (Jesus) dearly & You (Jesus) make(s) God the Father really happy.
-Joanna