beyond

He was barely on the planet and they already wanted to kill him.  He was merely an infant, and the heat of hate had already removed him far from his homeland to a foreign land where he might be safe from the doom impending.  Hundreds, perhaps thousands of baby boys were murdered in a sweeping bloody bid to snuff out his flame, his purpose, his destiny.  And a terrible cry was heard in Ramah: Rachel weeping for her children.

Were you or I in control, perhaps the Fertile Crescent would have very quickly become the charred, desolate Crescent.  In the flowing of a plan that had its beginnings before the foundations of the world were laid, what immense patience and tenderness were displayed in the face of the most vile of human intentions.  Elohim's elected people, the Hebrew nation, had thrashed convulsively in the gentle hands that gave it life, raised it up, made it something strong and beautiful to behold in all the earth.  Yet it kicked and railed at every miracle, spat in the face of every new salvation, oceans of grace being poured out upon it continuously.  Even in the tough love Elohim administered, the plan eschewed from every turn of events, prospering or devastating.  It flowed along until the time and place the Kingdom from beyond intersected with the base existence of humanity. 

The things that must have been stored up within his mother's heart, the thoughts she pondered while bloody hell was never more than a step away from her son.  I wonder, did she ever hate the world for hating him so?  She well knew Who he was, where he really came from.  She saw a miraculous velvety gentleness pour out from his heart in the myriad of mundane processes that took him from infancy to manhood.  She saw how beautifully he connected with the most sketchy, reprehensible personalities, simultaneously retaining sincerity, purely for joy.  She saw the soft but unmoving authority he commanded in response to the evil contrivances of those who were envious, who were in the high places of governance, who sought his life.  She heard his words from the cross they nailed him to, "Father, forgive them.  They know not what they do."  Why didn't He just free them all, perhaps she wondered.  Why didn't he just end all the fruitless dark deeds the world was drowning in?  But he did not fight the flow, the plan that would escort him from the realm of the living right into the very heart of hell.  He just rolled along being himself, doing what he came to do.

Daily, in the middle of work, leisure, and living, I lose it.  If not out-right in front of my offenders, then in my mind, I lash out viciously, hatefully trying to secure my own vindication, my own justice.  Those who offend often times have no inkling what I'm thinking or where I'm coming from or even that they have offended me.  The Word is always right there, "do not be easily offended, do not give vent to your anger, "vengeance is Mine!" saith the Lord."  Do they not have worries, cares that weigh on them as I do?  Are they not just trying to scrape a little bit of cream of the top, as we all are?  Why is it, in the middle of the blood and guts of life, we have such a difficult time of seeing beyond what is the now?  We all carry that weight-what we did, where we come from, what someone else did to us, where we are currently, etc.  How do we get past it?  To see beyond the faults in ourselves, in others.  It is the key to the true Kingdom of Peace.

A famous gospel singer wrote these words and put them to one of the most beloved old tunes of our time.  Its a tune that is always rattling inside my soul: 


Amazing grace will always be my song of praise.  
For it was grace that bought my liberty.
I do not know just why He came to love me so. 
He looked beyond my fault and saw my need. 

I shall forever lift my eyes to Calvary
To view the cross where Jesus died for me
How marvelous the grace that caught my falling soul
He looked beyond my fault and saw my need.


This Season, when you find yourself being suffocated by the "now," when your offense has been rudely awakened by someone, try it.  Tap into that other-worldy flow, that miraculous grace that fully sees and feels the sting of the moment, but that presses on past it.  Look through it all, past it all, to what that person may REALLY need.  You may just find that plan, that flow, that "something" that has been alluding you in same place.