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2014 was beautiful and terrifying, brilliant and blurred, progressive and retrogressive, I guess. The best of times; the worst of times, and all that jazz. I learned so many things, because I made so many mistakes. I didn't cry very much but I read some important books and I listened to a lot of angsty psych & progressive rock. I met beautiful people and heard beautiful words; I witnessed a few broken hearts. I think I lived every day different than the previous one, and that was essential. I made so many mistakes and learned so many things about people that I love and I fell in love with so many ideas, and Jesus was over and above all of this like a sky full of stars. I don't really know where I was going with that metaphor, but I guess I mean that he was piecing everything in this year into the soul he wants me to become. So most of all, I learned about Jesus, I guess.
This is fourteen things I learned, or maybe appreciated for the first time or whatever, about Jesus in 2014.
01. HE PROBABLY LOOKED LIKE THIS.
This is an image of a very ordinary-looking Jewish dude. Which was, in fact, exactly what Jesus was. Not quite the fair-skinned, blue-eyed guy in a shiny white dress that we see in westernized children's books.
02. HE CREATED THE STARS, AND THEN CAME DOWN TO SLEEP UNDER THEM.
03. HE HAS UNCONDITIONAL LOVE. Like, actual unconditional love. He likes people who don't like him. He cares about people who we wouldn't even want to talk to.
04. HE WAS PASSIONATE. It's easy to think of him as this sort of disconnected guy who floated Israel around patting kids on the head and performing miracles, but he wasn't exactly like that. He flipped tables in anger, he sweat blood in anxiety and sorrow, he wept for the death of Lazarus, he cursed a fig tree for producing bad fruit, and he was often extremely direct and even sarcastic when dealing with the pharisees. When I read the gospels, he never ceases to amaze me. Because even in his perfection, he had passion, love, sadness and anger.
05. HE MIXED WITH THE WRONG KINDS OF PEOPLE. Tax collectors, prostitutes, adulterers, social outcasts... He healed them. He forgave them. And yeah, he even hung out with them.
06. HE REALLY LIKED KIDS.
07. HE LITERALLY CAME DOWN TO THIS EARTH AND CARVED TABLES FOR 30 YEARS. Like, literally. He spent the majority of his life on the world he created making furniture or whatever for people who didn't even recognize who he was. There were probably people in Nazareth who owned tables made by the Messiah, and they didn't even know.
08. WE ARE BREATHING THE SAME AIR THAT HE BREATHED.
09. HE'S INTERESTED IN US AS PEOPLE. I mean like, your favourite books, your favourite colour, the people that make you smile, your ideas, your goals. and the things you love. He's interested in all of that.
10. HE'S NOT ACTUALLY A POLITICAL PARTY OR A GENRE OF MUSIC. He's actually God.
11. HE SAW EVERYONE THE SAME. Religious people and tax collectors. Kings and prostitutes. Zealots, and fishermen. He sees every individual the same: as someone who is lost, and who needs him.
12. HE WANTS TO TALK TO HUMANS. Even the very bad ones. Especially the very bad ones.
13. HE SAVED ISRAEL AS THE MESSIAH. AND THEY DIDN'T EVEN REALLY NOTICE.
14. HE WAS A MAN. This is, to me, harder to imagine than Jesus being an omnipotent God. He was a man, A human. I read somewhere lately that sometimes we think of Jesus as this pious, detached being who floated around from miracle to miracle, but he kind of wasn't. I mean, he probably laughed at jokes and got the hiccups and everything. A little amazing, when you think about it.
2014 was beautiful and terrifying, brilliant and blurred, progressive and retrogressive, I guess. The best of times; the worst of times, and all that jazz. I learned so many things, because I made so many mistakes. I didn't cry very much but I read some important books and I listened to a lot of angsty psych & progressive rock. I met beautiful people and heard beautiful words; I witnessed a few broken hearts. I think I lived every day different than the previous one, and that was essential. I made so many mistakes and learned so many things about people that I love and I fell in love with so many ideas, and Jesus was over and above all of this like a sky full of stars. I don't really know where I was going with that metaphor, but I guess I mean that he was piecing everything in this year into the soul he wants me to become. So most of all, I learned about Jesus, I guess.
This is fourteen things I learned, or maybe appreciated for the first time or whatever, about Jesus in 2014.
01. HE PROBABLY LOOKED LIKE THIS.
This is an image of a very ordinary-looking Jewish dude. Which was, in fact, exactly what Jesus was. Not quite the fair-skinned, blue-eyed guy in a shiny white dress that we see in westernized children's books.
02. HE CREATED THE STARS, AND THEN CAME DOWN TO SLEEP UNDER THEM.
03. HE HAS UNCONDITIONAL LOVE. Like, actual unconditional love. He likes people who don't like him. He cares about people who we wouldn't even want to talk to.
04. HE WAS PASSIONATE. It's easy to think of him as this sort of disconnected guy who floated Israel around patting kids on the head and performing miracles, but he wasn't exactly like that. He flipped tables in anger, he sweat blood in anxiety and sorrow, he wept for the death of Lazarus, he cursed a fig tree for producing bad fruit, and he was often extremely direct and even sarcastic when dealing with the pharisees. When I read the gospels, he never ceases to amaze me. Because even in his perfection, he had passion, love, sadness and anger.
05. HE MIXED WITH THE WRONG KINDS OF PEOPLE. Tax collectors, prostitutes, adulterers, social outcasts... He healed them. He forgave them. And yeah, he even hung out with them.
06. HE REALLY LIKED KIDS.
07. HE LITERALLY CAME DOWN TO THIS EARTH AND CARVED TABLES FOR 30 YEARS. Like, literally. He spent the majority of his life on the world he created making furniture or whatever for people who didn't even recognize who he was. There were probably people in Nazareth who owned tables made by the Messiah, and they didn't even know.
08. WE ARE BREATHING THE SAME AIR THAT HE BREATHED.
09. HE'S INTERESTED IN US AS PEOPLE. I mean like, your favourite books, your favourite colour, the people that make you smile, your ideas, your goals. and the things you love. He's interested in all of that.
10. HE'S NOT ACTUALLY A POLITICAL PARTY OR A GENRE OF MUSIC. He's actually God.
11. HE SAW EVERYONE THE SAME. Religious people and tax collectors. Kings and prostitutes. Zealots, and fishermen. He sees every individual the same: as someone who is lost, and who needs him.
12. HE WANTS TO TALK TO HUMANS. Even the very bad ones. Especially the very bad ones.
13. HE SAVED ISRAEL AS THE MESSIAH. AND THEY DIDN'T EVEN REALLY NOTICE.
14. HE WAS A MAN. This is, to me, harder to imagine than Jesus being an omnipotent God. He was a man, A human. I read somewhere lately that sometimes we think of Jesus as this pious, detached being who floated around from miracle to miracle, but he kind of wasn't. I mean, he probably laughed at jokes and got the hiccups and everything. A little amazing, when you think about it.
