…and called Mary her sister secretly, saying, The Master is come, and calleth for thee. John 11:28 (KJV)
Sometimes I just want to write. Very often I come across a thought while I’m reading and I just want to write about it. There may be no particular lesson or deep, personal experience with it, but it hits me and I just want to write. The downside is that this often happens late in the evening and if I don’t jot down some thoughts, it’ll keep me awake…sometimes for hours. This is one of those times. Not sure where this is gonna go, but settle in and let’s see…
The thing that grabbed me about this particular verse was how lucky Mary was to have Jesus, the very Christ – asking for her!!! I started thinking how thrilling that must have been. I wondered if Mary thought about it for a second; did she have the presence of mind to savor the thought? She certainly didn’t think long about it because the next verse says that “as soon as she heard that, she arose quickly, and came unto him.”
I suppose there’s a lot here. I’ve heard the call, felt the draw of Jesus several times in my life. Not much appreciation there. I usually answered the call with my thoughts and intentions elsewhere. Other times I simply didn’t listen to that call, it went ignored even shunned.
Another thing that struck me was that the story isn’t about Mary seeking Jesus. She didn’t just wake up one day and decide that…oh, I think I have time, or – maybe I’ll meet with Jesus today. No. Jesus called her, and she responded. How many times have I, as the result of a certain nausea toward life, just decided that maybe Jesus would be the panacea, a hobby, a means to an end? Each of those times ended in either more loneliness, disappointment, discontent or simply loss of interest.
I’m always fretting over the thought that maybe this go-round is more of the same. But it doesn’t seem that way. Sure, in the beginning there were certainly some events that might make it seem the same, but…I don’t know – somehow this time it’s different. I guess I simply have to have faith that this time it was Jesus calling and not George looking for some opiate to relieve the dead wall reverie of life, or looking for a means to an end. I struggle with that. But if it is Jesus calling – oh that I would be like Mary and run quickly!
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