Have you watched the film Back to the Future, a 1985 American production? Marty McFly, played by Michael J. Fox, travelled 30 years back in time in a time machine invented by "Doc". Needless to say, this story is a fiction and such a time machine does not exist. But what if it did... one day? And you have the opportunity to set any year to return to? Would you decide to go back in time to that very night of great anguish in the garden of Gethsemane? Where an insurmountable fear rose in one Man's heart because He was just about to give Himself into the evil hands of His persecutors? If you travelled back to that moment, what would you see there? What happened? Why did it happen the way it did? What would Jesus have said to you?
And so I met Him again in that garden
It has been close to a year since I last visited
Since He first looked at me and smiled and said,
"For you, it is all worthwhile."
And they took Him away
Before my eyes
What would He say to me this time?
I met His gaze anew
This time, I saw Him stare through me
As if He peered right into the core of my being
Into my soul
I felt defenceless
He saw through the disfigured exterior of me
Into a mysterious being that seems to live hidden within me
Somehow, He seemed to love what He saw
I felt awkward
Why does He seem to love this me within so much?
By this gaze, He taught me to gaze through others
To see too in them the hidden beauty
And to love this beauty that disappears as the interior diffuses out to the exterior
I met His gaze yet again
He seems to like me to visit at this place and time
His gaze spoke an instant message
His gaze that pierced into my soul
Was full of hope and satisfaction
As He beheld the beauty of the person I can become
A beauty that I do not see, know of or believe
And for this reason
For MY own sake,
For me to become this beautiful creature in His eyes
He chose to show me first how it is done, how it is possible
How to become the beautiful creature He knows I can be
He wanted to show me the way, the only true way
To bring out to the exterior the hidden me that only He sees
And so He surrendered to the way of the Cross
Leaving me with His living example
As I stood there in the garden
I watched His smile again as He was taken away
There was no more fear in Him
But a conviction that He was doing the right thing
A certainty that I will take after Him and walk in the way He has shown to me
An absolute sureness that I will ultimately arrive at the beauty He foretells of me
He is so full of hope in me
Why does He take an interest in me?
Why does He make it His business whether or not I am who I can be?
The hope He has for me is one entity with His love for the person He sees in me
I do not know what He sees but I know He loves what He sees
And He loves it with the most tender love
As He was taken away
I stood rooted, in tears
Who am I?
Who am I, personally, to this man, Jesus?
18 February 2012, Saturday
10.30pm
No comments:
Post a Comment