The Bungee Cord. 1-22-24
Hello,
I am writing to you from “sunny” Corpus Christi, Texas. Actually, it is far from sunny. Cloudy. Foggy. Rainy. Cold. Yesterday, we visited the botanical garden here. Everything had died from the deep freeze that hit last week. We were going to visit a wildlife preserve, but it was closed because the animals were all trying to recover from the cold. We were going to visit the Lexington, an old aircraft carrier, but it was so rainy and cold that the parking lot was empty. We were going to drive down to the beach, and walk on the sand, but it was so foggy that we couldn’t even see the beach from the road that took us there. As nice as Corpus Christi might be in the spring, summer, and fall, it is miserable in the winter. So, why am I here?
Well, I am here because the primary plans that I had made that brought me to Texas fell through, but I had also made a week’s worth of other plans in Texas that were not refundable, so my wife and I came anyway. I suppose that there might be some folks who, knowing that this was not the best time of the year to visit the hill country of Texas, would have just cancelled everything and taken the loss, but in my mind, I had too much invested in the trip that I couldn’t cancel.
Corpus Christi, as you probably know, means “body of Christ”. As I sit here in my hotel room, in Corpus Christi, having paid good money to come here at this most undesirable time of the year, I find myself experiencing a renewed and deeper gratitude for what God did in sending Jesus, the incarnate One, “Corpus Christi”, to experience the misery, suffering, and pain that he knew he would find when he walked this earth. Of course, God knew what to expect when God came to live among us. God, who could have simply stayed home, knew how miserable things would be for Jesus, the Christ. God knew the ridicule Jesus, the Christ, would face. God knew the rejection that Jesus, the Christ, would receive. God knew the spit that would hit Jesus’ face, the crown of thorns that Jesus would wear, the stripes that would be made on Jesus back, and the nails that would pierce Jesus’ hands, and feet. But God, like I, came anyway.
Why?
For the same reason as I came regardless of what I knew would like ahead. God had too much invested to stay home. Of course, it wasn’t money that God had invested. For God, it was God’s heart. As John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.” Loved. God, as inconceivable as it might be, invested his heart in those who were born in God’s image. When God looked upon the work of his hands, God saw a reflection of God’s very self. You and I might think of ourselves as nothing but, as the group Kansas put it, “dust in the wind,” sub-microscopic specks of dust in the cosmic universal wind, but that is not what God sees. Like a painter who sees herself in her paintings, like a carpenter who sees himself in the dining room table he made, like parents who see themselves in their children who reflect their flesh and bones….that is how God sees those who God created in God’s image. God has invested God’s self entirely in us, and for that reason, God was not able to stay home and watch his beloved be drawn away from him. God had too much invested to stay home. God invested God’s heart.
As crazy as it might sound, I am glad that I came here, to Corpus Christi, in this most miserable weather, because it has caused me to go back to my everyday life with a deeper gratitude for my God, that my God would actually come to my often God-forsaken life….a life where I have spit on him like rain, a life where I have blown cold winds of betrayal in his face, and a life so foggy and confused that I find myself wandering away….God has come and is making my life “Corpus Christi”… full of God’s love, mercy, and forgiveness. Why? Because God has invested his heart in me…..and you.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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