Love Actually: Day 35

Read Psalm 23, Proverbs 29, John 12:1-11

Doris was out of town this weekend. She was involved in a women’s retreat and I am so proud of her. But, when she leaves, for some reason, this house just becomes a wreck. I don’t know who messes it up so bad but after a couple of days, this place is a dump. I spoke at church yesterday, so, when I got home, I spent the afternoon cleaning up. You’d be surprised how many different colors you can cram in the washing machine at one time.

We are at the beginning of Holy Week, a week of passion and contemplation that, frankly, many of us do not recognize well enough. This morning I will do a brief (do you believe that?:)) video on MEDITATION, a word that few in evangelical services understand, much less do. But this week is a great week to meditate. Perhaps think through the events in Jesus’s life each day of this week and then spend some time putting yourself in that setting, or inviting that story into your life. Here’s an example, today Jesus visits the temple and drives out the money changers. It is not a spur-of-the-moment decision. The night before, Palm Sunday evening, He went to the Temple, looked around carefully, and then went away. (Mark 11:11) My imagination is that He was heartbroken over what He saw and decided in the night He would go back and cleanse the Temple. By the way, I am pretty sure that He knew this would be the final straw for the religious leaders and would trigger the events that lead to the cross. But, He is so willing to clean the house of God that He will pay whatever price necessary.

A few years later, Paul will say that WE are the house of God. 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, “Don’t you know your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit?” Meditating on that might lead me to do some serious cleaning up. If my body, my heart, is really the House of God, and if He is really going to come and look around, that has serious implications for all kinds of things, what I watch, what I eat, what I read, where I go, the list goes on and on.

My mother used to quote poems, long soliloquies that told stories about the faith. This is one she used to quote and even made me memorize at one time. Yes, I know it smacks of legalism, and a performance kind of faith, but since we are MEDITATING this might be worth reflecting on.

If Jesus Came To Your House
by Lois Blanchard Eades

If Jesus came to your house to spend a day or two –
If He came unexpectedly, I wonder what you’d do.
Oh, I know you’d give your nicest room to such an honored Guest,
And all the food you’d serve to Him would be the very best,
And you would keep assuring Him you’re glad to have him there –
That serving Him in your own home is joy beyond compare.

But when you saw Him coming, would you meet Him at the door
With arms outstretched in welcome to your heavenly Visitor?
Or would you have to change your clothes before you let Him in?
Or hide some magazines and put the Bible where they’d been?
Would you turn off the radio and hope He hadn’t heard?
And wish you hadn’t uttered that last, loud, hasty word?

Would you hide your worldly music and put some hymn books out?
Could you let Jesus walk right in, or would you rush about?
And I wonder – if the Savior spent a day or two with you,
Would you go right on doing the things you always do?
Would you go right on saying the things you always say?
Would life for you continue as it does from day to day?

Would your family conversation keep up its usual pace?
And would you find it hard each meal to say a table grace?
Would you sing the songs you always sing and read the books your read,
And let Him know the things on which your mind and spirit feed?
Would you take Jesus with you everywhere you’d planned to go?
Or would you, maybe, change your plans for just a day or so?

Would you be glad to have Him meet your very closest friends?
Or would you hope they’d stay away until His visit ends?
Would you be glad to have Him stay forever on and on?
Or would you sigh with great relief when He, at last, was gone?
It might be interesting to know the things that you would do
If Jesus Christ in person came to spend some time with you.

Don’t get hung up on the old-fashioned rules and regulations, but do dwell on the thought that Jesus is coming to look around the “temple” today. What cleaning up do you need to do? At the very least, I need to sort the laundry a little better. See you tomorrow.

Note: Lois Eades was one of my English professors at Trevecca. I didn’t realize that she was the author of this poem that my mother had me learn so many years before until long after I had graduated. 🙂