Love Found a Way to Help Us
May 12, 2001
“Judy Rogers, now a woman, remembers the year her father was laid off work. Family finances, already lean, became leaner still.
“Christmas was coming, and for months Judy’s father had been promising his wife a new dishwasher. That good woman was still recuperating from breast cancer surgery, making it painful to do some of the usual household chores.
“But a dishwasher? It seemed impossible- or at least wildly improbable. Where would the money come from? They were barely able to make payments on their medical bills and still make the mortgage as it was. In addition, the house had old wiring and plumbing. Even if they were somehow able to scrape together the money to buy such a luxury, it could never be installed without major remodeling.
“Another man might have shrunk before such barriers and obstacles. But Judy’s dad had made a promise, and he was a man who took his promises seriously. Somehow, he would find a way to do it.
“Judy remembered how her father hated the thought of even touching dirty dishes. He was a man’s man, and in the world he’d grown up in, men stayed out of the kitchen (excepting an occasional foray to raid the refrigerator). He had said on several occasions he would rather tackle almost any hard outdoor chore he could think of than face a stack of dirty dinnerware in the sink.
“But then again… how could he let his wife do work that was hurting her? Of course, she always minimized the discomfort. Said it was nothing. She’d be fine, she said. She looked fine too- to most everyone else- and held on to the smile so treasured by her friends.
“But her husband knew better. He’d heard the sighs- and those times when a stab of pain made her catch her breath. He saw the shadows of weariness under her eyes.
“He had to find a way. Judy remembered him brooding in the days leading up to Christmas- staring out the window at the gray winter skies, his hands in his pockets. He was always a capable, resourceful man, but this mountain seemed too large for even him to climb.
“Christmas Day came with no mysterious deliveries. No large box appeared next to the tree. There were no visits from the plumber or the electrician. There was nothing but a few carefully wrapped gifts under the tree.
“And a small envelope.
“Within the envelope was a note- a handwritten letter from Dad. The note read:
For one year, I will wash all of the dirty dishes in this household… every one.
And he did.”
What an incredible story, but it reminds us of what God has done for us. He saw our predicament. He knows our weaknesses and failings. He has heard our sighs, seen our tears, and weighed burdens in our heart that no one else sees or knows.
But how could a holy God redeem and help sinful man? To the angels in heaven looking on, it must have seemed so impossible. But angels know, better than most, that this is a God who takes His promises very, very seriously. If He committed Himself to help, He certainly would.
And He did. But not in a way any man or angel or demon might have expected. He did it by giving Himself. He did it by rolling up His sleeves and stepping personally into His own sin-controlled creation. In the face of impossible obstacles, God found a way.
The coming of Jesus to the world speaks strongly of God’s personal gift to us all. If we consider the beginning of His life and the time of His birth, there was an angel, whose mind must have been filled with wonder and awe, and who must have been grappling with the implications of it all, when he told the shepherds:
Luke 2.11- “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”
FOR UNTO YOU… It’s very personal! Have you considered that? Have you ever let that thought weave its way through your meditations and memories? God designed the coming of Jesus as a baby with YOU in mind. He came personally for YOU. The Saviour was born “unto YOU.”
I need to wrestle with the realization of how special Jesus’ coming is in contemplating the fact that, somehow, in some incomprehensible way, He was thinking about ME when He came. What he did, He did for me. What He gave, He gave for me. What he suffered, He suffered for my sake. And He held nothing back.
IS BORN… It’s miraculous, because the Holy Spirit has conceived what, to us, was inconceivable. The celebration of the coming of Jesus, in Christmas, isn’t something conjured up for men for the purpose of self-congratulation; it celebrates the moment when God stepped out of heaven’s radiance into the cold stream of time and space. You and I couldn’t lift a finger to redeem ourselves, so He made that long journey to be our help.
THIS DAY… It’s immediate, because God wants life to happen in your today, this moment. There is no need to wait any longer. God wants to birth something in you today.
He came to help us. He’s promised to give us guidance, good counsel, and daily provision. The help he provides is something no one else can provide. In “Touched by an Angel”, individuals have the help of angels named Monica or Tess. But in this life, we need more than Monica or Tess, as wonderful as their help might be. We need the help of God Himself.
You must not let year after year pass without realizing that he was born for you, lived and walked this earth for you, died and rose again for you. You must not let the season of the celebration of His birth pass without realizing these important messages and meditating on them. We must not let any time we come for communion pass without realizing these important messages and meditating on them.
Sometimes it’s hard to know what’s really real. Sometimes we do something and then, afterwards, wonder if it was really just a dream. We might do the same with regard to what God did. Did the Son of God really leave heaven? Yes! He came clothed in human flesh, born as a little baby in a humble stable or guestroom or some sort. (It wasn’t a five-star hotel!) And at Golgotha, the mighty Second Person of the Holy Trinity became the Lamb of God and died on a Roman cross. It happened! He was buried in a tomb and then came forth from the grave in victory and glory and great power.
Consider the words we find Paul penning to the Christians in Galatia:
Ga. 4.4-5
Think about this. If this story had stopped before Calvary, I would still be lost in my sins. I would still be on my own in life, grabbing for a little sweetness or excitement wherever I could find it, before death claimed me and sent me into eternal darkness.
But the story did not stop before Calvary. The Author just kept on writing. And he did it for me. He did it for you.
Think of this a bit farther. If His story had stopped at Bethlehem, at the birth, it would have been nothing more than a nice, sweet, religious story- meaningful but a little sad. If the story had ended at Galilee or in the temple, it might have been an inspiring account- but it would have been no help to me at all. You and I didn’t need inspiration- we needed salvation!
But, Jesus didn’t stay in Bethlehem. He didn’t stay by the blue waters of Galilee, or in the quiet carpenter’s shop in Nazareth, or on the steps of the stately temple. He stayed obedient all the way to the cross.
Ga. 3.13- because He did this for me, I have an incredibly great source of encouragement, blessing, and hope. I am helped. I can say or sing, with David:
Ps. 46. 1- “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”
Ps. 54.4- “Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me.”
Ps. 63.7- “Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.”
What lengths he went to help! What obstacles heaven had to overcome! How absolutely awesome that love found a way!
There’s a very inspiring story in Jesus’ ministry that really illustrates the lengths that God was willing to go to and still is willing to go to in order for His Story to reach to you and me! (Sometimes people give up on God so easily. Even in our latter years, people have wondered whether God has left us, and have considered that as a possibility. The only way you can consider that, as a possibility is to not know God! We wonder whether God is with us and if we don’t know God, we might think that a possibility. Aside from seeing His obvious working- as in the Council meeting at the end of last month, where we had unanimous agreement about the Purpose Statement for this congregation, we have the evidence of the lengths God will go to in order to reach individuals, like you and me!)
Matthew 14- WE have a wonderful picture of how unwilling the Lord was for His story to stop at Bethlehem. Matthew tells how the Lord sent His disciples across the Sea of Galilee after a busy day of ministry while He stayed behind to pray. As daylight faded, a storm came up, sweeping down the mountain, churning the sea into a dangerous caldron.
Mark adds an interesting detail: Mk. 6.48.
The word Mark used for ‘straining’ speaks of hard toil and comes form the word meaning ‘to torture.’ There was great pain and torment of body and soul that night as those men rowed for their lives ‘against the wind.’ The text literally says the wind was ‘contrary to them’ It was antagonistic to their purpose, fighting them for every inch.
And Jesus saw them.
In fact, he had watched their whole struggle from the time the first cloud shadowed the setting sun and the first ominous breeze blew across their bow. He had been praying for them. And now he was about to meet them at their point of need. The disciples must have despaired, imagining that they were out of sight from their Lord in the darkness and the storm. They thought He couldn’t hear their cries. But He saw and He heard. The ancient David wrote what could have been about them:
Ps. 31.22
And then He came to them. He walked right into the night, into the teeth of the wind, into the fury of the storm.
Does that move you? This isn’t a God who watches from a safe distance. This is no sleepy, apathetic God who idly observes the suffering of His creatures like so many microscopic entities on a glass slide. This is God with Us. Emmanuel comes down from the mountain and steps onto the dark, foaming sea. He moves near. He steps into our storm.
Mark 6. 48- 51
The wind had been against them. Contrary to them. Antagonistic to their efforts and goals and desires. Isn’t that a picture of life? Maybe circumstances have been contrary to you in recent days. Maybe you feel as though you’ve been walking against the wind or rowing until your heart breaks, but making no progress at all.
What can keep you, and what keeps me, is the knowledge that God watches it all. Jesus sees everything. He sees our struggles. He sees us strain at the oars. He knows when the wind is against us. And this very day he prays and intercedes for us at the right hand of the Father. But He doesn’t just watch. He comes to us- at the right time. It may not be the time we want, but it is at the right time. He steps into our circumstances to help us.
This is a Saviour who will pay any price. He’ll walk on water. He’ll shoulder His way into the storms of hell. He’ll endure the righteous wrath of His Father. And He’ll show up wherever life leads you. He will not be indifferent to your challenges and difficulties, your perplexities and hardships.
In His love, He will find a way to help.
You and I are competent, reasonably intelligent people, accustomed to helping ourselves whenever we can. But life has a way of placing us into positions where we are powerless to make any difference. People will often say, “Well, somehow it always works out.” But now we’re talking about things that aren’t going to work out. Storms that can’t be calmed. Walls that can’t be scaled. Problems that defy man-made solutions and baffle our best attempts to understand. No one else can help you. You can’t help yourself. You strain at the oars until your hands bleed, but you’re heading into a contrary wind, you’re taking on water, and you’re getting nowhere at all.
If you find yourself in that kind of agonizing predicament, I encourage your to look to the same source that dazzled Mary shortly after she discovered she had been chosen to bear the Saviour of the world. At the end of what has come to be known as The Magnificat, she exclaimed to her cousin Elizabeth that God “has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers” (Lk. 1. 54-55).
We have to look up. The Lord God is walking right into your storm. Don’t let Him walk on by. Receive Him into your boat and wait for Him to speak to the wind and the waves.
There’s no help like His.
As we come to the Lord’s Table, let us remember the lengths to which the Lord will go for you and me. Let us remember that He is there in your and my storms! Wow! What can we say, but ‘thank you’!
