My wife amazes me…

// January 12th, 2009 // OUT LOUD THOUGHTS

Jessica was running a quick errand on Saturday and ended up running into a couple outside of Target.  We’d actually met the guy, Duke before.  He had a great job in construction that was cut and now he’s literally on the street trying to care for his wife who has a horrible case of diabetes and expensive medications.  Jessica called me up and asked me what we could do.  And I told her we’re going to do everything we can which we both knew was really falling short of what we wanted to.

Jessica took the wife into a nearby grocery story and purchased the items they needed most.  But then she did something a little more surprising: She joined them on the corner of the street to help them get money from people driving by.

I’m shaking my head right now in amazement even as I type this and my lungs are filling with life even though I haven’t taken a breath.  I guess it’s one thing to throw a dollar at someone, and maybe it’s a little more to go into a grocery store and inconvenience yourself with time and spend money, perhaps it’s more meaningful to actually bring that person into the store with you and allow them to pick their own items and treat them like human beings.  It’s quite another thing to identify with and become one of them and to bear the burden and ask for spare change.

My wife amazes me.  She was a lot like Jesus this weekend.  Not that she isn’t usually, it’s that I love to share that beauty with the world – to take a step back and look with awe and wonder.  The fact that I know she was enduring physical pain as she stood out there makes the situation that much more inspiring to me.

It was more important to her not to just give, or to humanize, but to identify with – to become incarnate.

I’m reminded that nothing was good enough for Jesus either – except to experience, live and breath the struggles of humanity.  Only His total incarnation could save humanity.  Only when He would experience the depths of brokenness and rise up victorious could He empower us to be transformed and be like Him.

I’ve got so much to learn.

Hebrews 10:32-34

Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.

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