I had an image of our community that I wanted to share. It was a very simple image. I imagined all of us standing in a circle looking at the center of the circle where Jesus was standing. What struck me about the image was that we were not overly distracted by the others who were standing around Jesus. We were absorbed by Jesus and His beauty and love. He was how we measured what beauty looked like. I imagined what it might look like for someone in the circle to try and steal the show and I thought of someone doing a funny little dance. And I imagined that we might simply think that that person’s performance was rather silly and endearing and not at all worth comparing to what we saw in Jesus. And that we would have compassion on those who didn’t realize that they were doing a silly dance next to our glorious Jesus. And we would know that they are just afraid and that is why they are putting on such a funny performance. That they don’t know just yet how beautiful Jesus thinks they are and so they are not yet able to rest in the circle. They still think that they have to do something silly to be loved.
Anyway, there it is. It is my prayer for this community. That we would learn to rest in a circle around Jesus.
Mark