Curling Up With Jesus

Last week, I believe it was on Maundy Thursday to be precise, I was in the car and I caught the tail end of a broadcast of Focus on the Family that was amazing.  The guest speaker was Michele Cushatt, a Christian author and speaker who has struggled with three bouts of cancer among several other challenges in her life.  The portion I heard was near the end, when the host of the show asked her to speak directly to the members of the audience who, at that very moment, were thinking that message was for them because right then, they were journeying through the valley of the shadow of death...

Mrs. Cushatt said something that deeply touched me.  And I wanted to reproduce it here because I think her words were very powerful for all to hear, so I went to the website of the show and found the transcript.  This is what Michele Cushatt said:

Oh, my friend, for you, the one who’s listening right now who’s suffering, who’s just experiencing this gut punch of pain, and you have no idea how you’re going to get through, first, before anything, I want you to know you’re not alone. You are not alone. It feels like you are, but you are not.

What I want you to do is, I want you to take a moment and picture yourself walking in the Garden of Gethsemane, and you see Jesus there on his face weeping and crying, because He knows the pain and suffering that’s coming to Him. And He’s laying there, and He’s weeping, and He’s crying because He doesn’t want the pain, and He doesn’t want the suffering. But at the same time, He loves you. He loves you so much He can’t bear it. And all I want you to do is just curl up and sit next to Him because simply, in that moment, with Jesus on his face weeping and agonizing, He wants you to know you’re not alone in your own pain and your own agony. He literally came and experienced horrible pain so that way, even though you would have some pain right now and some suffering right now, that a day is coming that you would never again need to feel pain, and you would never again need to feel aloneness and isolation so that way you could be with Him forever. I just want you to hang out with Him in that place and know He sees you, He knows you, and He understands you are not alone. And then simply be open - open your heart and your mind to letting Him walk with you through your pain. He will not leave your side. He will not leave you exactly where you are today. And let Him walk with you through it one day at a time.

I loved every word...every image...every feeling hearing this made me experienced.

Next day, on Good Friday night, Grant and I watched the movie The Passion of the Christ.  I couldn't watch the whole thing because I had signed up to do my one-hour prayer vigil at 10pm, but I did get to see the scene of Jesus in the Garden...and of course, the words of Michele Cushatt rushed back to me... I watched the actor portray the agony of Jesus in such a vivid manner, that I couldn't help but feel it.  The time for my prayer vigil came, and I went into a room by myself, with a candle lit...remembering Good Friday Tenebrae Service which we had attended earlier, when Pastor Doug said that the Jesus Candle is never extinguished... and I curled up in there, with Jesus... in the Garden... in that very moment when He and I shared the most human of emotions:  the agony of fear... I realized that is the moment when we see Jesus as Man and as God in all clarity.  The man fears the pain that is coming and tries to avoid it.  God accepts it and takes it and bears it because of love.

I want to remember these thoughts on my next hour of pain, agony and suffering.  We have a Savior who has been there...and best of all... we have a Savior who is Lord over our pain and will be there when it hits us again, until the day it cannot hit us anymore, because we will be safe and secure in His loving arms...with His scarred hands wrapped around us for eternity.  In the meantime, let's curl up with Jesus in the Garden as we endure the seasons of hardship...