“The Impressive Patience of Jesus”


BIBLE READING: John 14

                The more I look at the life of Christ, I am in awe of His Power, His Deity and how He handled going through with this His sacrifice.  Yet as I continue to study, I continue to be impressed by His patience.  Let me explain what I mean by using a personal story.  My two boys love to play X-box with their friends.  Unlike when I was a kid, when all you needed was a console, a game and a controller, now you have to have a console, game, controller, a high speed internet service and a fancy headset that allows you to talk and listen to you fellow gamers as you play.  These headsets usually cost anywhere from $20-$200, so it is imperative that you take care of them, so they don’t break.  Even though these things are expensive, they are impressive due to all their bells and whistles that are included.  One of the hidden amenities of the headset that we purchase, is the fact that somewhere in the production process of these headsets, they marinate the pieces with the flavor of dog food.  I say that because all the headsets that we have purchased, our dog (Winston) just dearly loves to chew on.  Knowing this, it is of upmost importance that when you finish playing you must put the headsets out of reach of Winston.  We must have gone through 7-8 headsets through the years, because the boys forget to put them up and leave them in the floor or on the bed allowing Winston to have a late-night snack.  It just so happens that just a few weeks ago, we lost another headset to our beloved canine.  I was so angry!  I called a family meeting with the boys and repeated the same speech, that I am sure they could quote by now, that went something like, “How many times do I have to tell you…You have to put the headset up!  You cannot leave them lying around for the dog to eat.”  I was so frustrated!  If you are a parent, I am sure you have experienced something like that during your tenure.  I will have to admit, I have screamed, threatened and even punished my kids due to their negligence.  Why should I have to tell them over and repeatedly? Why can’t they just listen? I tell you the truth…if that happens to one more headset, I will lose my mind!!  
                Now…back to our Bible reading.  In today’s reading Jesus is telling the Disciples that he is about to leave this earth and go to be with the Father.  He has already told them this on many occasions, and now it is about to happen.  He also assures them that when He leaves, He will be going to prepare a place for them so that they can come to be with Him later.  Thomas says to Jesus, “Lord, we do not know where you are going and how can we know the way.’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.  If you had known Me, you would have also known the Father.  From now on you do know Him and have seen Him” Phillip said to Him, ‘Lord show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” (John 14.5-8).  It is at this moment that I feel as if I can relate to Jesus, because Jesus says to Phillip, “Have I been with you so long and you still do not know me, Phillip?  Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” (John 14.9).  On numerous occasions Jesus had told His disciples that He and the Father are one; if you know me, you know the Father.  If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father!  You talk about calling ten thousand angels to destroy the world…If I were Jesus…I might have called ten thousand angels to whoop Phillip so that He never forgot again!!  You see…just another example of why I am not Jesus.  Jesus had a great deal of patience in dealing with those that did not know him, but He had great deal more of patience for those that did and did not believe or understand.  Make sure you don’t overlook the patience and love that Jesus exemplified while on this earth, but also be thankful that He practices the same patience and love with us today.


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