Pastoral Ponderings—Why?
As my mom is recovering from her not-so-terrible bout with COVID, I couldn’t tell you how many episodes of Dick Van Dyke she watched, but they did bring her first giggles after COVID. But as much as I love Dick Van Dyke, the same series over and over was getting a bit much. So, exploring more, we stumbled into a semi-documentary type series about mysteries found at museums.
My mom and I share a deep love of museums of all sorts, so the show caught our attention. The several episodes of the show we watched were full of fascinating mysteries. One of the museums they took us to was outside of Niagara Falls, with artifacts of people who had willingly gone over the falls, whether in barrels, giant rubber balls, steel boats, and more. But why?
Why willingly, even eagerly enough to invest significant money and energy into the effort to risk life and limb, leading to likely death or painful bodily crunching are people so drawn to the risks of daredevils? And as for everyone watching on, why? What were they hoping to see when they opened that barrel, boat or ball? People are really weird!
I know what I think when people carelessly handle or MIS-handle something I’ve carefully pored over, crafted and loved. What must Jesus think about how we so carelessly MIS-handle His beautiful human creations? And yet against all odds, He loves us still. Does that make Jesus a daredevil too, that He would so carelessly risk shattering His great love on the treacherous rocks below?
With Jesus’ daredevil antics of careless, risky love, are we those who are eager to watch on with gruesome glee to see what will come of Jesus’ perilous love? We might also be those who stay in town, shaking heads and the silliness of such thrill-seekers—but either way, or even if we are like those risking it all going over the falls—do we realize that we are the ones whom Jesus is risking it all to love? Jesus must be crazy too—crazy in love with me and you! — Pastor Jim