Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Our Daily Bread Designs Forum Bible Verse Thursday Challenge #85 - Compassion

“Give all your worries and cares to God for He cares about you.”  1 Peter 5:7



This past Sunday’s Gospel reading is about Jesus raising the widow’s son from the dead (Luke 7:36-8:3 NASB).  In this incident, the dead young man is the only son, and therefore only support, of a poor widow.  She didn’t ask for a miracle.  She didn’t have to, because Christ read her grieved heart and answered her unspoken wish. 

The lesson we have to learn from this story is the real, sincere compassion which Christ had for the human sufferings of those in his life.  He became man in order to bring mankind into heaven.  The sorrows and trials of this life are of relatively small importance when compared with the unending future of happiness which is prepared for us if we conduct ourselves as he ordained during our time on this planet.  Knowing our human nature better than we can ever hope to and knowing how easily we can become entangled in the affairs of this world and especially how easily sorrows and trials can depress us and make us forget our real goal in life, he has proved to us during his time among us that he is interested in our earthly life as well. 

I’m reminded of the book “When Bad Things Happen To Good People” (Harold Kushner).  In it, he says “I don’t know why sometimes people choose to do the things they do.”  Tragedies happen.  Trials and suffering are a part of the human experience that none of us can escape.  Recently we’ve seen many tragedies such as what happened in Boston when a couple of people chose to do a very bad thing.  We’ve also seen natural disasters – floods, tornadoes and earthquakes.  Many of us have had the experience of watching a friend or relative suffer through a disease or illness.  Sometimes accidents happen, like what happened at the fertilizer plant in West Texas. 

What we see in each of these is that human strength and character to try to reach out and help those who are suffering.  In Boston, people rushed to reach out to the victims of the bombing with little regard for their own safety.  We saw people in West Texas opening up their homes.  The first responders were not just police and medical professionals, but families, farmers, workers, young and old.

Closer to home many of us have witnessed disease or accidents.  How many have experienced how neighbors, family members or friends make the effort to touch that person who is suffering in some way?  In that touch hoping there might be some sense of hope or healing.  It’s one of the beautiful things about us as humans – we want to reach out and touch that suffering and transform it because of care.

The scriptures ask us to realize that that happens but that God has a part to play in that.  God does not cause these tragedies – if you build your house in a flood plain, you should expect to experience flooding. 


In the gospel reading from Sunday (Luke 7:36-8:3 NASB), after Jesus raised the widow’s son from the dead, some in the crowd said “God has visited us, his people.”  We need to acknowledge that there’s this compassion that’s a part of all of us.  We are made in the image and likeness of God – God is a person of compassion.  God suffers with us.  In the person of Christ, He took on this flesh and walked among us as one of us.  We’ve all been on the receiving end, and perhaps the giving end, of reaching out and touching someone who has been broken by the human experience.  Let us reflect on that touch and, as followers of Christ with the crowds from long ago say indeed, God visits His people.

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Your challenge this week is to create a project using this scripture or another verse that reminds you of God's compassion.  When uploading your project, please use keyword ODBDBVT86 and then hop on over to Our Daily Bread Designs Forum and share it with us!

Supplies for this project
Cardstock:  Truly Yours – White Card Base; Bazzill – Coconut Swirl, Intense Teal
Decorative Paper:  My Mind’s Eye – Miss Caroline
Stamps:  Our Daily Bread Designs – Scripture Series 3
Inks, Stains, Paints & Colored Pencils:  Versafine – Onyx Black; Ranger Distress Ink – Peacock Feathers
Dies, Punches & Embossing Folders:  Spellbinders – Lacey Rectangles
Accessories & Other Stuff:  American Crafts – White Satin Ribbon (Hand Dyed)

I'm also entering this card in Seems A Little Sketchy Challenge #41!

Blessings,

2 comments:

  1. Beautiful card and it looks fabulous with our sketch. I may have missed it but I don't see the link back to Seems a Little Sketchy. If you can edit your post and add the link then you can be in the random drawing for a prize from our sponsors. Thanks and Thanks for using our sketch and sharing your card with us at Seems A Little Sketchy!

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  2. Love the browns and blues together, the die cut and texture of the wood look-works so well with the sketch! Great job! thanks for playing with us at Seems a Little Sketchy!
    Carolyn, DT

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