He took her in his arms and said, "You grow more beautiful each day that passes!"
"You mean I was ugly?"
"No, I just want you to know that as you grow in years, you are beautiful!"
"So I am old and ugly?"
"No! You are not old and ugly. You are beautiful"
"Yeah right."
Sometimes you can not win.
Jesus must have felt this way many times. The things he said and did were misconstrued into something that the world wanted to see and hear. Undoubtedly he would shake his head and wonder how in the world this happened.
In today's world, many folks hear negative messages from the narratives of Jesus' life. It is that point that I urge them to hear the texts again. Jesus was the most positive person you will ever hear from. He was encouraging the weak, reaching out to those the world pushed back, and always pointing out the word, love.
But the world will do what the world will do. Sadly many times it is because we are at the wrong place, listening to the wrong voice, and doing the wrong thing.
A man called home and heard what he thought was a familiar voice of his housekeeper. He asked for his wife. "She cannot come to the phone." He insisted that the housekeeper get his wife on the phone. Finally the housekeeper admitted that the wife was in the bedroom with another man. Enraged the man told the housekeeper to get the gun from his desk drawer and shoot them both! The housekeeper left the phone only to come back shortly. "I shot them both and then threw them in the pool!" It was then there was a pause on the phone and the voice on the other end said, "What pool? I do not have a pool at my house...."
Wrong voice. Wrong directions. Wrong thing.
Listen again to the voice of Jesus.
