39. He Pleased God When He Was Nobody

Matthew 3:17

Have you ever felt like you live an invisible life that doesn’t amount to much or matter to all that many people? Maybe you’re a bank teller or a math teacher or a financial advisor or a stay-at-home mom and you feel like you do the same old thing everyday and no one sees or cares. The cameras are turned on the quarterbacks and senators, the movers and the shakers while you just quietly live your little ‘ole life in the shadows, right? Well, I know it feels that way, but the truth is, your life (whoever you are) matters immensely to the One who made you and is watching every move you make. One time in Jesus’ life, the heavens burst open and the voice of Almighty God spoke for everyone to hear, saying, “This is my Son and He makes me so happy!” I know what you’re thinking... “Yeah, but Jesus did tons of miracles and taught so many amazing things.” Yes, that’s true, but when God the Father spoke on that day of how pumped He was about Jesus, it was before Jesus had done even one miraculous thing. All Jesus had done up that point was quietly live a simple and sweet, unknown life in a tiny little hick town in the middle of nowhere for three decades. I love Jesus because He pleased God when He was nobody from nowhere, and now He gives me the power to please God in my plain little life too.

38. He Was Poor

Luke 9:58

Most of the world is poor. Most of the people on this planet don’t have cars, cable TV, cokes or climate controlled houses. Most of the people in the world don’t have health care or retirement funds. Many people in this world don’t even have basic needs, such as a healthy amount of food or even clean water. The vast majority of human experience throughout the history of this planet has been toil and struggle. Chances are, that if you’re reading this on your computer, even the poorest person you personally know is among the world’s wealthiest 10 percent. You are most likely in the top 2 percent. Most of us don’t have any idea what it’s like for the majority of the world’s poor, but Jesus knows. You see, when the Author of all, who was the Maker of the morning and the Weaver of the world first laid His head down to sleep under the stars He formed and named, He laid that tiny head down on straw in a donkey’s feed box in an old, dirty stable. There were no silk pillows on cedar beds resting on polished marble floors and surrounded by servants for the Prince of Peace. Jesus was poor. God in the flesh, who made and owns the world and could have demanded all luxury and service made Himself a homeless peasant. I love Jesus because when He could have had anything, He allowed Himself nothing. He knows what poverty is like because He lived it.

37. He Will Never Reject Me

John 6:37

I’ll never forget the day my best friend got rejected by the new girl from Texas. It was Valentine’s Day, and since we were Middle Schoolers, we had done the required market research: that is, I talked to one of her friends the night before who said that if he asked her out tomorrow, she would definitely say, “Yes.” So, after lunch the next day, my friend walked up to the new girl from Texas and asked her out, but she said, “No.” We were all completely dumbfounded. Turns out that later on the night before, a Sophomore in High School called and asked her out. Now, how was my friend supposed to compete with that?! This other guy had a car! Situations like this are the reason some people are not only afraid to peruse a date, but afraid to try and pursue a relationship with God. They think, “Why would He want me? I wouldn’t accept me.” That’s why I love Jesus. He wanted me when no one else would have. He loves us more than we love ourselves. In John chapter 6 He said that He would never reject anyone who comes to Him. The word translated ‘reject’ is the same word used for casting out demons. I know what that kind of rejection feels like, and though I may have rejected myself, He never will. He wants us for His own.

36. He Sees Stuff In Me That No One Else Does

Luke 19:9

Have you ever felt written off or type-cast? Have you ever felt like the things of your past constantly haunt you in such a way that you can never get out from underneath the shadow of who you used to be? Zacchaeus was a person everyone loved to hate, and as far as they saw it, they had good reason to. He was a chief tax collector, which meant that he was in the employee of the Roman government and his job was to extract a certain amount of money from the Jewish population. Once he had collected the Roman quota, he was allowed to keep whatever else he could squeeze out of the people; and Zacchaeus was rich, which meant that he squeezed his own people pretty hard. In other words, the popular opinion of Zacchaeus was that he was a crook, a scoundrel and worse, a national traitor in the back pocket of the Roman oppressors. Everyone despised Zacchaeus with a zealous fury. Well, everyone except Jesus. When Jesus visited Jericho, he wanted to have dinner with Zacchaeus. He wanted to hang out at Zacchaeus’ house. A couple hours with Jesus and Zacchaeus changed forever. Folks began to mutter about it, but Jesus stood up and commended the man they all hated. I love Jesus because He sees something in me besides my past, my sins or my reputation. He sees a reason to love me.

35. He Has Forgiven Even The Stuff I Forgot

Luke 23:34

Today I was driving past one of those contraptions that sits on the side of the road and blinks your current speed at you in big yellow numbers right under a sign with the speed limit. As usual, it was blinking because I was cruising along at a speed that was a tad over the posted limit. Then it hit me... I was in someone else’s car! Yikes! Then I thought to myself, “Have I driven past any speed cameras this morning since I’ve picked up this car that’s not mine?” What if this precious family from whom I borrowed this car wound up paying for a ticket I earned?! What if my wrong cost them and I never even knew it? That made me think of our Lord. When He was dying on the cross, all of the sin of the world was placed on His account, as if He had committed all our wrongs, even though He never did even one wrong thing. I love Jesus because He paid for everything, even the (so-called) little stuff we don’t even realize we do everyday. There are wrongs I’ll never even know I did because He has forgotten and will never tell me. He felt it all, it cost Him dearly and yet He gladly paid because He loves us that much.

34. He Was Dissed

John 1:11

The big, fat theological term for what happened in the first Christmas is the ‘Incarnation.’ It means that at a certain point in history, the Eternal and Almighty God put on skin and became a man in the person of Jesus. I bet when angels think about the Incarnation, their heads are spinning over the fact that normal life continued once Jesus arrived on this earth. They are probably mystified over the fact that people casually talked to Jesus in the streets, or even walked right past Him in the marketplace without taking any notice. They may have thought, “Don’t they realize who He is!?!” When angels first heard about the Incarnation, they probably assumed it was the end of the world... that every single person throughout the world would stop, bow and worship their Maker and the Lover of their souls. But that didn’t happen. Jesus came into our world quietly, without notice. He grew up quietly in a small town and no one even realized that He was God in the flesh. Why didn’t He make the world bow down by the force of His glorious and limitless might? Well, because Jesus doesn’t just want subjects, He wants to be loved. I love Jesus because when He came, He gave people the right to ignore Him; because love isn’t something you can insist upon, no matter how strong you are.

33. He Will Never Judge Me

John 5:24

Now don’t get me wrong. I deserve to be judged. So do you. Everyone does. I know this is tough to read, but Romans 3 says that every person alive has fallen short. God made us to know Him and love Him and not only have we broken His rules, but we’ve broken His holy heart as well. When you read the deplorable narrative of this messed up world, we’re not just victims, we’re the villains in this story. We’re all rebels and all lost, but that’s why Jesus came. We deserved judgment. We ought to have experienced the emotional trauma of the convulsion of the universe at the hands of our unthinkable rebellion, and yet, God hans’t treated us that way. To anyone who wants it, God offers forgiveness instead of judgment. But how? If we deserve judgment, how does He forgive? That’s where Jesus comes in, and that’s why He came. I love Jesus because He took my place. He died to pay the penalty for my wrong and has forgiven me. Because of that, He’ll never, ever judge me. That’s why He said, “Whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.”