Who Are You, Lord?

Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, "What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?"
Matthew 8:26b-27

When we think of this statement by the apostles, we usually think of it in terms of, "They still didn't get that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God!" While there is certainly an element of such ignorance involved, I would like to focus on another angle, based on the word "marveled." The disciples marveled at this miracle. They were awe-struck. Despite their lack in faith a few moments before, they were enraptured in the glory of the One who could silence the tumult of the stormy sea. It seems very possible that this question they asked could be paraphrased as something we might say like, "Who are you, and what have you done with Jesus the carpenter?" They were shocked, following a carpenter Rabbi who suddenly commands the most powerful of natural elements.

What led me to consider this? My own experiences. As I gaze on the glories of God's creation, reflect in gratitude on His forgiveness, and consider the works which He has done, I am sometimes struck with the awesome realization that, for everything I know about God, there are a hundred things I won't know until I'm in Heaven, and for each of those another hundred things I will never know since I'm not God. I then ask the oh-so-appropriate question, "Who are you, Lord?" We know God, but yet He's still such a mystery. In awe of that mystery, I find it necessary sometimes to stop and ask who is this glorious One I serve. Who on earth does the crazy, awesome things God does? Who is this God who came as a man to die for us? He is Yahweh!

"Yahweh--Yahweh is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in faithful love and truth, maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving wrongdoing, rebellion, and sin. But He will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers' wrongdoing on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation."

Exodus 34:6-7

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I'm Mixen Dixon, and I approve this message.
My blog: http:/christian-contemplate.blogspot.com/