it’s time for something rather serious

I think sometimes that I forget that God is a god of empathy - I forget that He is a god that feels sorrow over our pain. I think this is unusual, or rather, it's not the classical portrayal of God. He is typically portrayed as all-knowing, all-understanding. All-righteous and terrible. And He is those things no doubt, but I think to me, at least, the thing about Him that strikes at me me the most is that He cried. He knew the suffering of being mortal. He had compassion to those in need. He felt pain and anguish. Inversely, he knew friendship and the love of those around him. He knew joy. He experienced happiness. And frustration. And exhibited patience. And anger. And I even think, at times, he may have even been a weeee bit sarcastic...

Jesus was human. He experienced feeling and emotion. He's not distant. Not remote. He felt sad. Abandoned. Betrayed. Weak. He felt everything negative I have ever felt. He seeked to be the lowest of those low. To serve those who most people forgot.

Sometimes I think about this and it literally brings me to tears.  I don't understand it and then again, I totally do. And it's this concept - that the creator of all things would willingly experience all things; both good and bad and appreciate them both - that throws me for a loop. It's an act of intense intimacy - feeling what others feel. Seeing their trials and making them your own, when you don't have to.

I just have to remember that sometimes. The living, breathing God that was and is and will always be - He's not remote. He's not punitive or harsh. We complicate things. I complicate things. But my God is a God who feels. Who is not above human emotion. Who immersed Himself in it. Felt it. Lived it. Deliberately sacrificed everything to have a relationship with us. With me.

I take rest in that.