I had quite a scare with our propane gas grill last weekend.
The grill was still hot when I had to swap an empty tank. Somehow there was enough residual propane in the connector hose to blow out, ignite and flash back over my face and arms.
My beard and hair were singed and my face and arms immediately turned a bright and painful shade of red.
Very fortunately for me, the worst pain and swelling was over in about 36 hours. Since then I've been applying antibiotic ointment and tending to the few remaining blisters.
It could have been worse. A lot worse.
I immediately had much, much more compassion for truly serious burn victims. I just never realized. As I laid awake that first night my heart was breaking to think of families in burn wards and their terrible struggle to recover or endure. Especially parents agonizing over their children. It was not difficult to pray heartfelt prayers for people unknown to me. I could better appreciate their condition, even though I was spared the worst of it.
Jesus really did experience our condition. He walked around in sandals and lived without plumbing. He saw what it was like to have sin burst back in your face without warning. He actually suffered the insults and hatred of people whom he knew were miserable in their own right. He was not spared the worst of it.
God knew what mankind would say, sooner or later. "How can a higher power have any idea what we are going through? How can she have any sense of this pain, that heartbreak, those diasters, or these failures?"
Jesus is the Word made flesh. God among us. The ultimate act of a supreme being willing to take hold of genuine compassion.
I felt my flesh burn last weekend and believe me, I understand it a lot better than I did the day before.
Jesus put his flesh on a cross and let them drive nails through it after they'd beaten him bloody for performing miracles and preaching forgiveness.
I think he understands us a whole lot better than we like to think he does.
What do you believe?
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