Matthew 25:40 “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’”
We know God more fully as Emmanuel – God with us – because he became incarnate as Jesus, ‘God with flesh on’. He calls us both to incarnate the message and to see his imprint in the lives of those we come into contact with, which is what Matthew 25 is addressing. God is not meant to be an abstract concept to us, and neither is our following of him meant to remain an abstract mental adherence to a set of propositional statements.
A little street urchin was standing barefoot in front of a shoe shop, peering through the window, and shivering with cold. A lady approached him and said: “Little man, what are you looking at?” “I was asking God to give me a pair of shoes,” was the boy’s reply. She took him by the hand into the store and asked the clerk to get some socks for the boy. She then asked if he could give her a basin of water and a towel. She then took the little guy to the back part of the store, removed her gloves, knelt down, washed his little feet, and dried them with a towel. By this time the clerk returned with the socks. Placing a pair upon the boy’s feet, she bought him a pair of shoes. She patted him on the head and said: “No doubt, my little fellow, you feel more comfortable now?” As she turned to go, the astonished boy caught her by the hand, and looking up in her face, said: “Are you God’s wife?”
It’s a simple illustration, but a profound concept. Will you and I embody the message we profess to believe today? It’ll definitely cost us, but authentic living is more compelling than the most coherent verbal argument in the world.
Lord, help me to see Jesus in everyone and be Jesus to everyone today. Amen!
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