Distraction at the door: part 3

And His mother and brothers came to Him, and they were unable to get to Him because of the crowd. (Luke 8:19 NASB)

Our focus verse continues from the passage about Mary and her other sons outside the door, wishing to see Jesus, who was inside. As you may remember from the previous post, Mary suffered for the common human condition. She was simply and completely human, without a bit of the divinity of her Son. Since she was a young girl, Mary had faced the most difficult challenge imaginable, bearing and rearing the Son of God.  It was a God-sized job for this very human young woman. Mary could not rely on herself if she wanted to do her part well. Totally at the mercy of God, and totally dependent upon the grace of God, she found that they were sufficient. 

It is not clear what had happened in the intervening years, nor why Mary was not with Jesus. I suspect she was allowing him room to fulfill His calling, and that she had other responsibilities at home. Regardless, she found herself outside, looking in for Jesus. 

Perhaps it was as a result of her gentle nature, or maybe fear of the crush of people, but Mary and her boys were defeated by the crowd. How many people would be too many for her to press through to her Son? Somehow, her longing to be with Jesus was not quite as great as her difficulty with the crowd, or she would have pressed through, even if the other sons had to clear a path for her. 

This problem of longing and obstacles is one we all face. To be close to Jesus, our desire for Him must exceed our desire for worldly success and relationships. It must be greater than our desire for anything else. But is it?  Do we desire a closeness with Him that can only be achieved by pressing in, past all the distracting obstacles in our path? 

Today, pray that our desire, and that of our loved ones, to be close to Jesus would be so great that we would willingly overcome all obstacles to have the intimacy He came to give. 

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Link to last night's post: http://leannahollis.blogspot.com/2014/07/no-telling-about-dogs.html

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Our terrorist prayer focus this week is Ibrahim al Asiri, one of the most creative and dangerous bomb makers in the world. He is sworn to destruction of believers in general and the US specifically. Pray that his terrorist efforts would be thwarted, that a miraculous conversion would occur, and that his fervor for the cause of Christ would exceed his fervor for destruction.