Humiliations Galore

I'm going camping.
This beautiful place is hard to leave. Even this morning, the water is glass, and the sky is turning blue from pink. It's different from home. If I win the lottery, I am going to buy a house on the water here in the Puget sound area.
God totally gave me this summertime job as an answer to my prayers for peace and serenity. When all is done, I haven't earned a lot of money. Who cares? The calm is the best paycheck I've ever had.

Once again, I have given a lot of thought to the way that Jesus allows us to serve Him. Did I already tell you this? What you and I have done "for the least of these" is counted as done for Jesus. My care for Brittney is a gift for my Lord. The thing about that which strikes me is the fact that I would not submit willingly to such humiliating care. If you want to give me a gift, that's cool, but I'd rather not be in need of it.
Have you ever received a gift that you really, desperately needed? Money to pay the bills. Help to the toilet when you're too sick to go on your own. Cleaning your filthy house when you are injured. Someone else to brush your teeth. These are the needs of "the least of these". They require elbow grease and dirty hands. They are personal, and quite frankly, gross. But they also require the recipient to submit to the care.
It's remarkable enough when Jesus is the caregiver.
I totally understand the picture of myself as the needy one who has nothing to offer to my Creator. His care for me is something I readily acknowledge.
My Creator is not content to leave me with that comfortable picture. Instead, He turns the image upside down and puts Himself in the Needy position. Not because He needs me to do such things for Him. I suspect it's because I need to be shocked. Jesus is apparently okay with being compared to a severely handicapped individual. He is okay with being served in the most humiliating of ways.
He wants my clumsy hands to get dirty.

I'll be back to posting Monday morning, friends. We'll see you after the music festival.