Please take a minute to hear a distraught call from a 12 year old boy to a Christian radio station and his words of wisdom.His words have wisdom beyond his years!I was touched by this call and ministered by how he handled his difficult time.
I was amazed when I heard Jesus was not Puerto Rican.I was a kid and everything I learned about God led me to believe that He was Puerto Rican, just like me. Imagine my surprise when one Sunday morning, in a small church in Puerto Rico, the Sunday School teacher told me that Jesus was Jewish and he was born in Israel.My little eyes opened so big!First, I did not know what a Jew was or where Israel was on the map. Second, if He was not Puerto Rican, who was I speaking Spanish to all this time?Yes, it was a shocker, but it didn't last long because like any kid at that age, I put the thought aside so I could get to the coloring paper the teacher gave me to color Jesus. OH... You want to know what color I used for Jesus?Well, I looked at my arms and my hands and I searched through the 64 crayons in the Crayola box for one crayon that would match Jesus and me. Well, it has been many years since that Sunday School class and I've learned that Jesus' nationality as an Israeli gave him certain cultural characteristics. Oh, and they weren't Puerto Rican ;-)I also learned that according to the Bible something of his pre-resurrection image changed after the resurrection; Mary Magdalene is cited as mistaking Him for the gardener (John 20:15), two of his disciples walked the road to Emmaus without realizing who He was (Luke 24:15), and in John's Gospel, Jesus stood on the shore calling to His disciples in a boat, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus (21:4).I guess they were as shocked as I was. lol You see, I have accepted the reality that I really don't know what he looks like, and I don't think He wants me to worry about that either.But one thing I am certain of... I may not know what He looks like physically, but I sure know what He feels like... LOVE!
13:4 Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; 13:5 it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 13:6 it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. 13:7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 13:8 Love never ends...
When I read 1Corinthians 13:4-8a, I see a portrait of what love looks like.It is there that I learned to move from the fantasy image I created when I was a kid, and I see Jesus for what He really is.John said it best, "God is Love." (1John 4:8)
Does it matter to me what He looks like?Not really!What matters is to know that He loves me enough to die for me and He will pave my way, walk with me, and keep my feet from stumbling. He's done it before and He'll do it again! So, today, when I pray, sometimes my childhood Puerto Rican Jesus bubbles up in my mind, but it is ok, because I know that He is listening and I can hear Him say "Te Amo Lourdes", and I humbly answer "Yo también te amo Señor" - I love you too Lord! Lourdes ;-)
Fifteen years ago in a hospital in Chattanooga, TN; I was given the blessing of becoming a Mommy of a beautiful boy. The doctor put him in my arms and I could not believe that something so precious and tiny was mine. How can this little thing survive this world outside my body, without my constant protection? So many thoughts crossed my mind while holding him in my arms. My life as it was, changed the moment my son came into “my” world. A few minutes later, my husband came to the room while I was holding our baby.He was spending some time talking with the doctor and making sure everything was ok with the baby and with me. As my husband took our son in his hand from my hands, I saw that little person being embraced with such much love by his daddy. What an incredible picture!I could not take my eyes from them. I could see in my husband’s eyes “pride” and “joy.” I could not hear or understand what my husband was telling our baby, however, I heard his heart! My husband told his baby boy… “I am the happiest father right now! You are my son; you are a “Morales”.I will love you and protect you always. I will help you be a good man; to love God, love life, and be the best you can be.” Yes, that image will always be present in my memory. Today, September 27, 2007, fifteen years later, I had the blessing of reliving that wonderful event in my life. My teenage son was in my hands while I hugged him and kissed him “good bye”. You see, my son left to a mission’s trip to Rumania to minister to people in need. I saw my son walking away with his luggage and a backpack full of dreams.
How can my son survive outside my protection?How can he make it in a different country without his daddy’s safeguard and my loving care? So many thoughts crossed my mind while he left my arms. Then, I came to realize something amazing.Like fifteen years ago, today my teenage son left my hands, to go to the hands of His Heavenly Father. I can not hear or understand what God is telling my son, but I can hear God’s heart!He is whispering… “Josh, you make me very happy!You are my son, my child. I love you!I will be with you and I will help you and guide you. You are now in my hands.” I knew right then, that my boy was going to be ok.Yes, he'll be just fine. He is in God's hands, the best place where my son can be.In His Hands!!!
While having dinner with my family in a restaurant I had the most wonderful experience.I was welcomed, for the first time, with an extraordinary spiritual language.I’ve never seen anything like it in my Christian life.You see, while enjoying my dinner I saw a lovely couple came in and sat a couple of tables from us.Nothing unusual about them until the lady closed her eyes and started moving her hands and the gentleman was quietly looking at her hands.I was completely moved by the movements of her hands and the reverence in his eyes. I knew then that she was praying in sign language. I’ve seen people use sign language in church services, praise and worship, and kids ministry, but I have never seen anyone praying in that beautiful language. When she ended the prayer she did what I imagine was the “Amen” sign and the guy repeated it with his hands, then they started eating.I was moved to tears.My heart was touched by their silent prayer in a most extraordinary way.Yes, I have to admit that I was ministered in a very unconventional way… by the most beautiful sign language prayer at a restaurant.WOW!
We sometimes limit God with our finite understanding of his omniscient power.God enjoys messing up our cultural theology:“This is the way it is because this is how I was taught.”How wrong can we be? When we talk that way God takes us by the hand and redefines our presuppositional thinking about Him and about ministry.He does not want us to limit His power to a religious building, or a religious “persona.”He wants us to see Him for what He really is, and not for what we’ve made Him to be…We should not be surprised when He shows up! Isaiah 55:8-9 NLT “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. Lourdes
How many times do I forget something incredible that God has done in my life?Sadly to say, I have done it many times.Not because I am ungrateful, just because as the old saying goes… “Out of sight, out of mind.” There are some things which I think about only as long as I can see them in front of me; when I can no longer see them I forget about them.
I was in one of our life groups (home/small/cell group) this week and I was confronted with the reality that I need to start collecting stones or something like that, to help me remember the awesome things God is doing in my life. You see, the works of God are so worthy of remembrance, and I need to develop better ways to remember them. Don’t get me wrong, I do write notes in my Treo.I write the date and action words when God minister to me through a verse or a chapter in my Bible, but I have never being aggressive in using symbols of remembrance or building memorials like Joshua did in Joshua 4:4-7 NLT: 4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had chosen—one from each of the tribes of Israel. 5 He told them, “Go into the middle of the Jordan, in front of the Ark of the Lord your God. Each of you must pick up one stone and carry it out on your shoulder—twelve stones in all, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. 6 We will use these stones to build a memorial. In the future your children will ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 7 Then you can tell them, ‘They remind us that the Jordan River stopped flowing when the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant went across.’ These stones will stand as a memorial among the people of Israel forever.” I know it will benefit not just me, but those coming behind me, to see and appreciate how great and wonderful God is. I just want to leave behind great stones for my kids. Can you help me with ideas??? Lourdes
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