Jan 29

Sometimes it is hard for those who have grown up in a godly home to put themselves in the place of others who have not known this great blessing. Simon the Pharisee may have had this problem in trying to understand the jar-woman. What is to be done to remedy this? Should you and I go out and start living a life of sin just so that we can come to God in repentance and love him more because we have been forgiven more? Of course not. That would be ludicrous.

Paul talks about such foolishness in Romans 6. To do this would be to act like the character in the movie "The Music Man", who took up smoking just so he could experience the freedom of quitting, like others addicted to it. That is not the way to increase our experience of either thankfulness for salvation or for our love for God. God has a better way.

To see this better way, we look at the facts Jesus revealed to Simon about himself and his relationship to God.

Fact #1: "Do you see this woman?" (Luke 7:44).

Of course he sees her. What kind of question is that? But, of course, Simon does not really see her at all; all he sees is her sinfulness. He cannot see the heart that beats inside this fellow human being who is just the same as he is. Jesus is pointing her out to him as one who has a heart that is delicate and tender and that can be hurt by the words and actions of others.

She is a human being with a soul that has dreams and sensitivity to the pain of having those dreams shattered by her own sinfulness and the sinfulness of others. Perhaps her only dream is the simple but deep one of being accepted by those around her and to live a normal, ordinary life, with a husband who loves her, and to have children. Is that so much to ask?

But for whatever reason, it has not happened. And so she cries, perhaps, for this reason as well.

Are there dreams of your own that have not come true and thereby cause you to cry? Then you can identify with this woman and sympathize with her.

Scripture for today: Hebrews 4:14-16
Thought for today: Broken dreams find their mending at the feet of Jesus, who was broken for our sake.
Prayer for today: Thank you, Jesus, for taking my broken dreams and putting them back together as part of your own, much better and bigger dream for my life than my own. Thank you so much for doing this, for making me whole again.

JAN 29