Patient
How patient is my God who could endure such inconvenience without complaint.
This world is such a gift to us – particularly now.
This evening before I go to sleep, I will be able to have a nice warm shower inside my nice clean bathroom. I will sleep in a bed that is warm and cosy in a house that is safe in a country that is free. By the Grace of God there is money in my bank account – though I am no millionaire! And there is work on my table. My children have their health, as does my husband, as do I. If we become sick, we shall be able to visit a doctor or hospital, and our government will be able to pay for this treatment using the taxes which are legally (and arguably equitably) collected from my income.
These are no small things and no small blessings.
God Himself chose to be incarnated into a very different world. In Christ’s world, there was no warm and cosy home – He was born in a stable and laid in a manger. There was no free country – He was the child of a subject of the Roman Empire and there was no money in the bank or necessarily food on the table. Christ was a refugee and lived away from home in Egypt for a period of time. His government did not pay for his healthcare and in fact there was no hospital or doctors of the ability and expertise that we have today. Taxes were not issued equitably, and they certainly were not used for the good of the subjects.
And there was no warm shower in a clean bathroom. While Roman aqueducts were excellent, they did not in any way rival modern plumbing and infrastructure.
And Christ chose to be incarnated in that world. He chose the world where nothing was fair and the science was not advanced. There was no comfort as we know it. There was no freedom either. If He wished to travel there was no aeroplane and certainly no fast cars. He worked within the limitations of the world knowing that there were conveniences beyond human imagining (at that time) to come…
And I have been thinking about that today.
You see, God could have chosen to be incarnate in any time in the history of the world. And even despite all of that, He chose then – a world far less convenient than the world that I am living in today…
And I have been thinking about that today as I have been thinking about that today because it seems to me that the hidden sacrifice of enduring just the human inconvenience of living in a world where human advancement and scientific development was not at our level is such that reflecting on it could cause me to cry such tears for my Beloved. How patient is my God who could endure such inconvenience without complaint. How beautiful and how patient is my Beloved, to ensure those things for me…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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