This reflection is Part 3 of a 3-part blog series written by Taylor Field. In his new book, Relentless, Taylor looks at familiar Bible characters and their stories. As we read their experiences with God, not only do we find ourselves within their stories, we begin to understand “The Crux of the Matter;” we find ourselves knowing the heart of God.
The great warriors of the world have blood on their hands, bearing the blood of the unfair and also the blood of the innocent in the name of justice.
Our Lord has blood on his hands too. But it is his own blood, finally absorbing the toxic pain of our stupidity so that we do not have to do so.
Through his example instead of his coercion, we learn greatness through not being noticed, we learn wisdom by being misunderstood, wealth by losing most of the things we hold onto, fullness by being drained.
And in the end, the abandoned one becomes the abundant host. What we had constantly blamed as some kind of “ogre god” turns out to be the loving father we never had, the transcendent lover we always dreamed about, the sister or brother who fiercely protected us, the friend who saw the best in us and would be there no matter what.
All along, he had been preparing a place for us--the city we always dreamed of, that last and first tree of healing we always suspected was there somewhere, the river that satisfies and cleanses when nothing under the sun in the end ever really did before.