alive!

Someone recently passed this on to me...and until now, John 20:6-7 has never impacted me like this before.

"Then Simon Peter, who was behind him (John), arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen."

John (20:7) tells us that the napkin (linen), which was placed over the face of Jesus, was not just thrown aside like the other grave clothes. The Bible takes an entire verse to tell us that the napkin was neatly folded, and was placed at the head of that stony coffin.

So why did Jesus fold the linen burial cloth after His resurrection?

In order to understand the significance of the folded linen, you have to understand the Hebrew tradition of that day. A folded napkin had to do with the Master and servant, and every Jewish boy knew this tradition. When the servant set the dinner table for the master, he made sure that it was exactly the way the master wanted it. The table was furnished perfectly, and then the servant would wait, just out of sight, until the master had finished eating, and the servant would not dare touch that table, until the master was finished. Now if the master was done eating, he would rise from the table, wipe his fingers, his mouth, and clean his beard, and would wad up the napkin and toss it onto the table. The servant would then know to clear the table. In those days, the wadded napkin meant, "I'm done." But, if the master got up from the table, folded his napkin, and laid it beside his plate, the servant would not dare touch the table, because the folded napkin meant, "I'm coming back!"

purest place

The lyrics to a song I have heard countless times stirred my heart for more of the "purest place" I can ever be...

Paint me with Your purity
That I'd attract Your majesty
When others boast in fame and gold
The purest place is where I'll go

The purest place I will draw near
Do what it takes to keep me here
In the center of Your heart
The purest place is where You are

It's not with masses, not with kings
Not in these songs, or offerings
Not in this life, or what it brings
The purest place is You my King

If there's such thing as too beautiful
If there's such things as too wonderful
If there's such thing as too marvelous
Jesus it's You, Jesus it's You

It's You my King,
It's You my King
The purest place, is You my King

When the world all around me is screaming "self", the purest place is where I long to go. Oh that fame and recognition would quickly push me to His heart and not to my self! "Do what it takes to keep me here"...is He ever doing this, so painfully. Yet my heart desires to be and remain in this "purest place," the center of His heart. Only He is in this place and none of me. What must this be like to experience such Purity?

The "purest place" is His heart. It is completely unadulterated, whole and complete, with no impurities, as pure gold, which only comes refined by fire. And my life, it is in the fire, becoming more pure, so that my heart too would one day be the purest place.

If there is any thing as "too beautiful...too wonderful...too marvelous," it is only Jesus.

The purest place, Father, align my heart with Yours. Do what it takes.

or unique

Adding to my previous wrestlings with "competitor"...the contrast is "unique." If I am unique, then I am not comparable to anything else. Isn't that what I want? What we all want?

Unique by definition is "existing as the only one; incomparable; only specimen of a given kind; being the only one of its kind; without an equal."

Reread those last three words...

Why do I compare (and therefore compete) when everything in me wants to be unique, yet I do not value or even appreciate my created uniqueness by my Creator? Our uniqueness is given. We cannot create it. Freedom comes when we see, know and rest in this. It is a grasping of Truth in the heart.

My actions say I want to be the same as those around me. Somehow I want to be equal or even superior to those around me, yet just as much different. How confusing!

In my search for uniqueness, I will end up on one of two roads...competing to find my uniqueness, which is really striving to be like someone else, or knowing and trusting Jesus. I am already fully "unique" in Him.