In those days, when we lived each day close to the Lord, we came to feel as though he was a friend, a kinsman in our midst. We heard him laugh and we saw him cry. So many of the emotions a man can feel passed through his expressions and we could have been brothers, standing on the hillside, beside the lake or walking through the fields.
There was so much more, however, that was different. We could not discuss it between ourselves because it was too beautiful, too stunning, too simply other to describe in any meaningful way. I think about this now and I fail to explain it, but you have asked me to share what I saw, what I heard, in order to make an orderly account. I will try but please forgive me if I say that I can never really show you what I have seen or represent what I heard. You have spoken with the only person who could really take you into the early days of his life. I cannot do that, but I have something to share with you.
He called us to him. He knew us. We saw him teaching and healing. We understood what those healings meant, what it was to forgive sin and to command the Sabbath. He shared his knowledge of the kingdom of God. He commanded the wind and the waves, and he raised the dead. Peter had declared who our Master is, and Peter and James and John had seen Jesus bright as the sun up on that mountain with the Lawgiver and the Prophet. They heard the voice from the Cloud, confirming him the Son of God. What I saw and heard changed me forever.
Changed Forever
The seventy-two who were sent out on mission returned. They spoke of evil spirits, exhilarated to think that no evil spirit could approach them when they called on the name of the Lord: “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” Their faces were radiant and their voices loud and sure. Jesus put their excitement into a larger context, taking their gaze upward, above the level of snakes and demons, into the heavens itself where their names were known. And as they gazed upwards, he began to speak, his voice like a song or a chant. I could no longer understand what he was saying but I knew it was prayer. Everyone else was taken up with the events they had just witnessed but I saw something in those moments which gave me certainty. This was the Holy One of God.
I have to tell you this, for your orderly account. Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit of God and in the joy of that communion he sang to His Father. My head swam and I wondered if I looked on the face of God as he said,
‘You have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little children.
‘All things have been handed over to me by my Father.’
None of the human structures of pride adhered to the Lord as he spoke his Father’s words to the little and the meek but I trembled as I heard his voice – The Voice – calling out
‘No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.’
The words echoed around us: Son-and-Father, Father-and-Son and all singing in the joy of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the LORD who filled him.
The prayer seemed to reach up to heaven. Then he turned back to us and gently said, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I say to you, many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”
This is so beautifully written and uplifting. I felt I was in a shared conversation from one’s personal experience of being in these presence of Jesus. Our present times are full of challenges. This writing is encouraging and a reminder of God’s power and love. Much needed today. Thank you so much.