Quo paso con tus manos?

The marine went around to his buddies and asked for their unwanted photographs of women. He got 25 pictures and sent them to his former girlfriend with this note:"I'm so sorry, I can't remember which one you are. Please take the one that belongs to you and send the rest back."

Have you ever been laughing at a truly funny story- and that one is- and have reality slap you in the face? Have you ever found your laughter stilled when you recognized the pathos behind the humor? This story did that for me. A young man who had been deeply wounded by someone he trusted was trying to get back and to hide his wounds.

My proclivity is to be a loner (I've often said that I could be a Trappist monk if they would let me bring my wife). I've come to see that proclivity as a way to keep me from pain. If I just don't let anybody close, they can't reject me and I can't get hurt.

One of the most profound things we can know about Jesus is His refusal to be a loner. He is God and one of the attributes of God is His self-sufficiency. The Westminster Confession of Faith says that, "God hath all life, glory, goodness, blessedness, in and of himself; and is alone in and unto himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creatures which he hath made...." That, of course, is true but there is so much more.

Paul writes in Philippians 2:4-8: "Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."

Jesus chose not to be a loner. Not only that. He chose the pain that is the inevitable implication of being in a relationship with people. If you are going to be committed to people, you must know that it is a commitment to pain, chaos, misunderstanding, anger, betrayal and pathos.

Some of the most moving passages of the Gospels are those where Jesus expresses His hurt and loneliness.

For instance, do you remember when Jesus started teaching some of the deeper truths of who He was? Almost everybody was pleased when the blind threw away their white canes. People liked the sound of beggars' cups hitting the side of the road. It was fun to see cripples planting their crutches in the sand and doing a jig. Everybody likes a magician. But when the "magician" starts talking about things like losing one's life, taking up a cross and dying to self, the crowd has a tendency to quietly dissipate.

John 6: 66-67 says, "After this many of his disciples turned away and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, 'Do you want to go away as well?'"

Jesus was feeling the pain of rejection and loneliness.

Do you remember when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead? John said simply (the shortest verse in the entire Bible) "Jesus wept." Theologians and Bible teachers have given various reasons for Jesus' tears, but I think it was simply a sense of loss and mourning, that of a very human Messiah who would miss His friend.

I know Jesus raised His friend from the dead, but I believe that was as much for Jesus' sake as it was for Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha. Jesus, in His incarnational state, needed a friend and His friend was dead.

When Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane facing the most horrible and devastating human loneliness - the loneliness of one whose God would turn away - He sought the friendship of His disciples.

Listen to the pain in Jesus' words when He finds them sleeping: "Could you not watch with me one hour?"

That is a lonely man whose pain was magnified by the lack of concern of those He had chosen to love.

Ravi Zacharias tells of seeing a painting in a church in Puerto Rico. It is a painting of a little girl holding the hand of Jesus. She asks Him, "Quo paso con tus manos?" ("What happened to your hands?")

There was no answer in the painting because there isn't a need for one. The answer is that Jesus' hands had the nail-scarred wounds inflicted by those He loved.

That Marine had scars too. He chose to hide them. Frankly, I like the way he did it! He didn't get mad; he got back! Good for you, son! I can affirm the psychological catharsis that can be. Anger and action maybe can't fix it, but they can ameliorate the pain... for a while.

I can identify with that. Been there, done that and have the T-shirt.

But I can also identify with the Marine that night when he was by himself with no one but Jesus to see. I can identify with the tears that come from being human, insecure, and hurt. I can see him in my mind's eye, in his sleeping bag, trying to stifle the sobs so his buddies wouldn't hear. I've experienced the broken heart, the wrenching emptiness and the horror of rejection. I suspect you've been there too.

Maybe you're there right now. Perhaps you've been rejected by someone you loved deeply. Could be that you know what it's like to feel a friend's knife in your back. Maybe it was your husband or wife who walked away. Could be your teenager said that he hated you. Could be that your Christian brothers and sisters failed to look at your heart and didn't understand that you were doing the best you could. Perhaps you couldn't please your parents no matter how hard you tried.

It's really okay to cuss and spit (that's metaphorical... sort of). When it really hurts don't pretend to be some kind of super-Christian. There aren't any. Tennyson said, "It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved before." Tennyson was an idiot! Not really. At least in the long haul.

"Lord, I'm angry,' I prayed. "I don't know if I can deal with this. I simply can't forgive this time. It's too much to ask."

He replied, "I know. But I did. It's a process and it's hard. But you can do it because I'll help. Look at the scars you have and then look at Mine. They aren't altogether different."

Okay. But can I still send the pictures?

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Copyright 2003 by Key Life Network. Today's Daily Wisdom is by Steve Brown. Steve's daily radio broadcasts are heard nationally on Key Life Network. To locate a station near you go to www.keylife.org

Today's Daily Wisdom post was edited by Keith Todd, moderator of theSermon Fodder list which offers Christian humor and modern day parables forenjoyment and for use as sermon illustration material. To subscribe go to http://www.sermonfodder.com or drop an email note to Sermon_Fodder-subscribe@yahoogroups.com