Jesus Got Sick, Too

I just got home from my sister’s birthday dinner. As I drove my parents and myself home, I couldn’t help but notice the brightness of the stars and moon and remember a night many years ago when I lay in bed trying to sleep but having sleep elude me.

Propped on my husband pillow, trying to breathe through stuffed nostrils and coughing lungs, I had a middle of the night revelation: Jesus got sick, too, because Jesus was fully human. And not only that, but Jesus had to sleep—and probably sometimes struggled to sleep—and Jesus got aggravated—and Jesus had to use the bathroom…which was actually the subject of a conversation I had earlier in the week when talking about the bathroom break that I created between my 2nd and 3rd grade classes.

All that being said, as I write this tonight, through stuffed nostrils and coughing lungs, with the Christmas tree in the corner of my eyes, I am not surprisingly thinking about Jesus…and remembering a declaration that I penned awhile back.

I close with that declaration tonight.

Why I Choose Jesus
2.23.12

I choose you...
...not just for raising Lazarus from the dead but for crying when he died.
...not just for sending the rich man away but for leaving the door open for another chance.
...not just for feeding the 5,000 but for having compassion on their needs.
...not just for welcoming children but for once being a child yourself.
...not just for speaking to and forgiving the woman at the well but for valuing the lives, work, and
witness of women.
...not just for calling Zacchaeus down from the tree but for seeing him in the tree in the first place.
...not just for standing against hypocrisy and legalism but for eating with, communing with, laughing
with, and valuing the outcast and those who believed they were unlovable.
...not just for dying a cruel death but for living into, though sometimes struggling with, your call.
...not just for teaching us to pray but for praying for us through agonizing tears.
...not just for being fully God and fully human but for living your humanity in the context of community.
...not just for speaking straightforward truth but for leaving us with story, parable, and thoughts that are sometimes hard to understand.
...not just for breaking bread and drinking wine but for cursing the fig tree when you were hungry and it did not have fruit for you to eat.
...not just for words but for silence.
...not just for the sacrifice of your blood but for the breath of your creation.
...not just for your death but for your life.
...not just for eternity but for right now.

Jesus, I choose you not for judgment but for redemption.
I choose you not for showing up but for being all-present.
I choose you not for comfortable assurance but for hope.

Jesus, I choose you not for condemnation but for love.

I choose you not for condemnation but for love.