He Pushed

Yesterday I cried on my lunch break. I waited to turn onto the main road as an ambulance buzzed by on my right. I prayed quickly for the peace of God over whatever the situation.  When I turned, on my left was a young man struggling to get his car started.  The barefoot man got out of his car and proceeded to push in the crevice of the driver side door.  He looked back at the cars and their owners making it very clear that he was in the way.  A burden.  Engines roared and grumbled as they passed him by. He got back into the car with angst and desperation on his face.

Then... he turned his face upward.  At that red light, I so dearly wanted him to be calling out to the Father.  Suddenly,  as if desperation and determination were one in the same,  the young man got out and moved towards the back of the car. He wasn't muscularly enhanced in any way,  but he began to push as hard as he could.  The car moved but not quickly towards the entrance of the gas station fifty feet away.  As cars rushed by him,  anger and sadness grew in my heart,  my light changed,  and I determined in my heart that I would turn in and push the car with him.

As tears began to puddle in my eyes,  an older man began to run towards the young man,  who in comparison to him was just a boy.  He ran across the grassy ditch between the gas station and the road as if it were his very own child stranded in the middle of a busy street.  Without a word,  with the swiftness of a Lion and the softness of a Father, he began to push the car with the Barefoot young man.  Now the car moved with agility into the gas station and right up to a pump.

I drove off weeping. A wilderness lays spread out across the world,  and a small glimpse of it displayed on 39th Ave. Maybe that young man created that difficulty or wilderness for himself or maybe it just happened.  Whatever the circumstance,  he was left to walk it alone. No one was coming.  No one was stopping.  Everyone was watching.  Isn't that how we feel in our weakness,  in our sin,  in our wilderness. No way out but by your own strength? Barefoot.  Shards of glass and loads of dirty on your feet tell of the path you chose to take. If anyone knew where those feet have been..... Then some man shows up,  with weakness etched into his skin and all across his body.  He swoops in alongside you and things start to move.  It looks like the both of you are getting the job done but it's really just his strength.

I saw the gospel today.  And it broke me.  That older man ran,  he didn't walk.  He pushed,  he didn't just talk.  He put his very muscle into it,  he didn't call a towing truck.  He stopped.... He didn't keep going.  He embodied my King.  My Lion.  My Lamb. Haha.  Yeah,  yesterday I cried on my lunch break,  and this morning I cried all over again.  We serve a God that pushes in the wildernesses that we ourselves created.  He didn't come to accuse,  he came to push,  and reclaim your,  my,  OUR dignity in Him.

I'm in love again.