Glitzy

"The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said, 'I am the bread that came down from heaven,' and they said, 'Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, 'I have come down from heaven?' ' " - John 6:41-42

Well dear readers, this entry is quite unique. This is the 100th post to my little Lectio Divina blog. Thank you all for reading the short passages and reflections, and I hope you've found this to be insightful - or at least, entertaining.

While I'm responsible for 98 of these entires, I felt like this one's gotta be good. So I started racking my brain about what I could do to make this entry more "special" than the others....

...I came up with nothing. Zero. No ideas whatsoever. Well, except for dancing hamsters - but that's already been done.

But I started thinking about it some more - and started thinking about what Jesus did to wow and amaze. Unfortunately, I can't turn water into wine, there is no storm for me to attempt to calm tonight, and I can't multiply fish and bread (not that I would anyway, as I'm not a big fan of fish).

And then I realized - I don't need to do anything special. I don't need to "wow" and "amaze" to get my point across. Because it's not my point at all - it's Jesus's words that I'm reflecting on - and he can do all those things. He has done all those things. And his words are perfect - they don't need changing, or sprucing up. They're for us, for everyone, and the fact that we have them - after 2000 years - is all that matters.

It's funny - because it's his words that are causing the Jews to murmur amongst themselves. Jesus will shortly rebuke them and set them straight. But they too were hung up on who he was, and where he came from, instead of what he actually said. Had they listened and believed, rather than wondered about his family, they may not have needed all the signs and miracles he had to produce to have his message sink in.

But we can't judge them from so many years into the future - after all, we too are guilty of wanting to see to believe. Hoping for that one sign that God exists, hoping we might see Him, hear Him as others did in the Old Testament. And while we're not hung up on his family, we too get hung up on wondering, questioning who he was, why he was here, and if it was all true.

Thankfully, deep down, we know the truth. And while our minds may wander, our hearts are firmly anchored in the belief of Jesus, the Son of God, who died for us all.

Amen.