Clay in the Hands

During my devotional time this morning, I listened as I often do to the Jesuit daily prayer podcast I have mentioned here before (Pray-As-You-Go).  The scripture reading was out of Matthew (read it here).  This is one of the most familiar passages of Jesus teaching to me – I know it backwards and forwards but today it touched me as never before.

Jesus was adamant for us to come to him.  He didn’t say in that passage, “hey, someday when you have time, stop by,” or “hey, just give me a passing glance every once in a while.”  He said, “Come to me, live with me, harness yourself to me.” My first response today was a sense of unworthiness.  I don’t deserve for Jesus to help me.  But the passage kept running through my mind, “come to me.”  I was struck with an overwhelming sense of God’s grace.  But the second response I had was one of liberation.

We are so caught up in doing good things that we get weighted down to the point that we don’t feel like doing anything.  At that point, we have to remember that Jesus offers rest.  He did not say that everything we carry would be removed, he just reminds us that he is right beside us, strapped into the same harness as us.  There is great comfort in that fact – there is rest in knowing we are walking with Jesus.  My prayer is that you find rest today.