Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: ALONE (10/20/22)
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TITLE: A Letter From Jesus | Previous Challenge Entry
By Marilyn Meiners
10/25/22 -
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Two people. An outcast in their community. Alone and rejected yet loved and accepted by the One who mattered the most.
As their child, I was deeply loved yet often misunderstood. My family could not understand my love for the Torah. Why I read it over and over. Even at a young age I had it completely memorized to the chagrin of my brothers and sisters. No one understood why I enjoyed spending time in prayer. Talking to a Father that could not be seen, yet a Father I knew in a way no one else did. The neighborhood boys thought I was an “odd-ball”. Unless they had a spiritual question, I often found myself alone.
Yet, I wasn’t alone.
I spent time with my father who helped me learn his trade, carpentry. I loved working beside him. Making furniture for others to enjoy. I once made a beautiful hand-carved cross, polished a rich golden hew, which my mother proudly sat on our mantle. I told her it would mean more to her one day. She simply smiled.
I lived at home until the age of 30. It was time to accomplish my mission. I had a story that must be shared. People I needed to reach, sick folks to heal. Only I could do this. However, doing ministry alone is not the way God meant it to be. He sent Me to be the teacher, thus I found twelve men whom I could invest my life into and teach them how to finish the job I was starting.
Together we walked the hillsides of Galilee. Traveled to Jerusalem, Samaria, Capernaum, to name a few. I taught by the Sea, on a mountain, in the Temple, in the streets. We ministered to the rich and the poor, the spiritually sick and physically sick, men, women and children. No one who came to me was turned away.
I often took the twelve to a secret place where we could be alone and I could teach them privately. Where I could answer their questions. Where we could laugh together, eat together, pray together and learn together. These were some of the best times of my life. At times even Judas seemed interested in what I was sharing. How I prayed for that boy. Although I loved him dearly, he was a loner. Always standing on the outside of the circle. Never truly interacting with us. My heart grieved because he walked a different path.
Three years later I found myself truly alone. When push-came-to-shove, when my life was in jeopardy, when the people around me wanted me dead, when even my chosen twelve left my side, I faced my future alone.
Alone as I faced Pilate.
Alone as I faced Herod
Alone as the crowd shouted “crucify Him”.
Alone as I hung on the cross.
At one point even my Father turned his back on me. I remember crying from the cross, “My God, why have you forsaken me?”
As tears welled up in my heart I realized the high price I was paying to give the world a way to reach the Father. To be forgiven from their sins. To secure for themselves a place in heaven.
That high price was my separation from my Father. I have never felt more alone than I did in that moment. My heart was crying and so was my Fathers.
Victory came when I arose from that grave. I was alive. I kicked that old devil in the behind, stomped heavily on his head. He lost this game.
As I once said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life.... He who believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
If you are feeling alone, invite me into your life. You will never feel alone again. Living within you will be the One who will “never leave you or forsake you.”
Scripture from ESV: Mark 15:34, John 11:26, Hebrews 13:5
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