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Paths
Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; Then you will find rest for your souls. Jeremiah 6:16
In tree physiology class the other day, the professor talked about the time a colleague of his had shown him aerial photographs of an area that had been sprayed with herbicide in an effort to kill vegetation that was interfering with utility lines. "Why," his colleague asked, pointing out a thin green line of healthy vegetation that ran through the area where the other plants were now dead and brown, "didn't the herbicide kill these plants?" It was puzzling. "That's a deer trail." his colleague explained. Immediately the professor understood that the plants' wound response was responsible for this area of green. Plants are amazing structures. When the deer brushed past those leaves, bending them slightly, the plants had responded by immediately beginning to repair the damage. In essence, the slight "damage" done to the leaves, had actually resulted in making the plants stronger.
Of course, the same is true of us. That old adage, "Whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger," is right on target. Thinking about the path I've walked, I picture green threading through a barren wasteland, but it hasn't been a biological wound response that's made my path green; it's been Jesus. Without Him, my path would be just as dead and brown as that herbicide-sprayed landscape.
Jesus walked most everywhere He went. The Hebrew word for "walked" can also be translated "went", which makes sense since walking was the most common way people went during Bible times. Jesus walked with his mother, Mary, and Joseph to the temple in Jerusalem when He was twelve. He walked in the wilderness during the time of His temptation. He walked to meet John the Baptist at the Jordan. He walked across Samaria where He talked with a woman at a well. He walked up a hillside to teach, and later feed, more than five thousand people. He walked on water to join the disciples in their boat. He walked in the temple. He walked to Bethany to raise His friend, Lazarus from the dead. We could say that He walked from the beginning of His earthly life to its end, from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, from the cradle to the cross.
Even after He was resurrected from the dead, He walked.
Now behold, two of them [disciples] were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him. Luke 24: 13-16
He walked with those two people who were in despair about His death They reasoned that, since the chief priests and rulers had been successful at having Him crucified, He wasn't the One who would redeem Israel after all. But, walking with them, He comforted them by expounding the scriptures concerning Himself. Later, after He broke bread and offered it to them, they recognized Him. After He left them, they said to each other,
Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us? Luke 24:32
Jesus wants us, too, to understand that He is the Redeemer, the One prophesied and promised to Abraham, Moses, and the Prophets. He wants us to open the Scriptures, and He wants to open the Scriptures to us. He wants to walk with us, and He wants us to walk with Him. On this ancient path, this good way, those who pass there don't do the wounding; that's already been done. Instead, as we walk that path with the wounded Man who suffered for our sin, He becomes our wound response. The One who conquered sin and death makes the repairs so that, if it were possible to view the course of our lives in an aerial photograph, we would see a path, green and flourishing, in the midst of a fallen world.
Daye Phillippo
September 2009