The God Who Connected

I remember when I was a child. I was sitting in a religious room in my house praying to lifeless statues. There was no peace in my heart. The statues were made out of stones and metal. They could not hear me. They could not talk. There were no responses, no comfort.

After I became a Christian, I know that God hears my prayers and He can feel what I feel. Human sufferings are not new to God because God was here on earth! He experienced sufferings, hurt, rejection, persecution, betrayal, poverty, sickness, and everything that I've ever experienced and more. Jesus Christ is so humble and kind. He mingled with low-class people, poor people, sick people, lepers, the handicapped, and the outcasts of the society.

Jesus is compassionate. He went everywhere to heal sick people, to preach the good news. He is actually the best social worker in the whole universe. He is someone we should look up to and follow his examples. We have been looking for heroes at the wrong places---Hollywood movie stars, sports figures, singers, famous authors, our friends, presidents, kings and etc. But the real hero is Jesus Christ who suffers all things and dies for our sins so that we can have an eternal life. This is what prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 53, "He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows."

Lately, I have been reading the Book of Mark. I noticed how Jesus interacted and connected with poor and sick villagers. These people were invisible in the society---no one cared about them. They were in the background and people just walked by them. But Jesus took time to minister to them. It was amazing to read about how Jesus related to them in a special way.

In Mark 7, Jesus drove a demon out of a young girl. He then healed a deaf and mute man who begged him to place his hand on him. In Mark 8, Jesus fed a large crowd with bread and fish otherwise the crowd would collapse with hunger and exhaustion. In the same chapter, Jesus healed a blind man at a town called Bethsaida.

Jesus is welcoming everyone into God's kingdom. You don't have to be rich, powerful,educated, strong, attractive, or have a certain race. Just come to Him with a heart of repentance and believe that He can cleanse your sins and He is the only way to salvation. Only through Jesus, you will be forgiven and reconciled to God. The Bible says, "If you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."

Happy Easter Day (two days late)!!!