Tip of My Iceberg

They’re becoming world travelers.

Our daughter and her husband have business meetings in Spain. Rather than leaving the kids with us or others, they opted for bringing them along, to experience a new country and culture, and to learn how to adapt to what is different, like language, food, and expectations.

The issue is getting there. Time in the airport, more hours on a plane, and the persistent inability to sleep while flying makes the transition a challenge. Kids are wonderfully flexible and adaptable. Right?

What about us adults?

Kids’ needs are simple. Enough sleep to keep them kind. Screens to occupy them so they don’t know how long they’re waiting. Identifiable food that is known to be enjoyable.

Change and transition can’t be simplified. We have forty-one adults and thirty children in our program who have just moved to Orlando from a variety of places for a variety of reasons.

All are in a new place. All need time to adjust.

We don’t adjust at the same speed. And sometimes, it’s just harder than we want. New doesn’t work like we’d hoped.

The disciples found that out as they followed Jesus from village to village, watching Him heal and teach people about the hope of forgiveness and grace in Him.

What they didn’t understand was all the people He chose to talk to. The undesirables of His day, folks others wouldn’t want to associate with. One group in particular were the Samaritans.

They were part of the northern kingdom of Israel, and when Assyria conquered them in 721 B.C., there were Jews who intermarried with Gentiles, making them “half-breeds” in the eyes of the Jews.

Jesus and His disciples were returning to Galilee and chose to go through Samaria rather than around it. His men left to find food, and Jesus, tired from the journey, sat by a well.

A Samaritan woman came to draw water in the middle of the day. She’d had five husbands and the man she was living with wasn’t married to her. Shame kept her from drawing water with the other women.

Jesus asked for water. The woman was appalled; Jews never spoke to Samaritans, and Jewish men would never consider a conversation with a Samaritan woman. But Jesus wanted to offer her more than talking.

“The woman said, ‘I know the Messiah is coming–the One who is called Christ. When he comes, He will explain everything to us.’ Then Jesus told her, ‘I am the Messiah.’” John 4:25-26

The Messiah had been promised by God when Adam and Eve were evicted from Eden. God guaranteed He would send Messiah to redeem His people, to bring them back into right relationship with Him. When Jesus claimed that title for Himself, He was revealing that He was the One who the world waited for.

The challenge was when the disciples returned and saw Jesus in a situation they were uncomfortable with. Talking to an undesirable? That was unheard of.

Jesus never saw anyone as undesirable. He not only spoke to them; He loved them. There was no one so despicable, so unwanted that Jesus didn’t reach out to them in love.

The kids are better, quicker at embracing who and what is different.

Jesus is the epitome of love and grace, seeing people where they are, loving them as they are.

He sees different as delightful.