Today's Bible reading is about Jesus' baptism. We're focusing on the baptism itself in these verses (you can read Mark 1:1-10 for the back story). As Jesus comes up out of the water He hears God's announcement - "You are my Son, whom I love, with you I am well pleased."
As I read this, I thought of the times in my life when I have heard such unmitigated love. Of course I heard this from mom and dad when I was little. I even have a photograph of it from my wedding day. Dad was beaming as we got ready in the "groom room" and the photographer was able to capture it. It was a happy day, and I was drinking in dad's love. Jesus must have felt the same energy from His father's love and it tells us something that this is the first interaction Mark records between God and Jesus. We all seek this kind of love in one form or another.
For me, I'm a praise junkie. I've noticed over the years that if someone tells me they like or are pleased by what I'm doing, that gives me energy that pushes me into overdrive. (Of course the opposite is true as well. Criticism just kills my energy and I have to reach really deep to keep going on something after I received harsh words about it.) Love... praise... affirmation... why is it that these are so important in all of us (and why is it so difficult for us to offer these to others)?
As I prayed this morning, I imagined the possibility of God being pleased with me. We're working through a book in the Men's group called He Loves Me. It talks about how difficult it is for mamy of us to accept God's love. We (and I) frequently focus on our faults and shortcomings, letting them add "baggage" to our relationship with God. That's one reason I especially like the part in our new J2A liturgy where we write out our "baggage" we're carrying for the week and tie it in a scroll and place it on the altar. We sort of give it to God for the duration of the meeting. I don't know about you, but I find that when I unroll the scroll afterwards (before shredding it) that God has done a little something each week on the problems I listed.
This week we will focus on the early days of Jesus' ministry. How was He called? How did he respond? I'm glad we started the week on His baptism for our journey with God started when we were baptized. And I liked the interpreted story version of his Baptism on p.23 - especially the grey part...
"Only when Jesus hears and knows that he is deeply beloved by God and deeply pleasing to God can he begin his pilgrimage of ministry. At the start of this journey, Jesus does not receive a command or decree from God; instead he receives a blessing. Jesus does not receive a map or itinerary from God; instead he receives a calling."
Can you accept God's love for you?
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