According to the dictionary, compassion means mercy. If you get a speeding ticket and the judge has compassion on you, he let's you go free. I was doing 53 miles an hour in a 35 mile an hour zone and I got stopped. I was in a big hurry to get to my granddaughters which was maybe 3 -4 blocks away and I needed her restroom really bad, so I was going way to fast in this area. I was pulled over much to my chagrin and he asked me if I knew how fast I was going and I told him yes and I was headed for my granddaughter's which was just across the street from where I stopped. He asked me why I was speeding and I told him the truth much to my embarrassment and he went back to his car and checked my record and there wasn't anything on it, maybe one a few years before. He just gave me a warning, he had mercy on me or compassion. Three plus years ago, we moved into this little town and I have wondered what his name was, I was going to go thank him for his compassion that day.
We have a Savior who is a lot more compassionate than any policeman or judge could ever be.
Luke 9:12-15 "And when He came near the gate of the city, behold a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the city was with her. When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, 'do not weep'. Then He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And He said, 'young man, I say to you, arise.' So he who was dead sat up and began to speak. And He presented him to his mother."
Can you imagine what that did for the poor widowed mother? Being a mother of four, I have a small idea what she must have felt like when her son was given back to her alive and well. It must have been an over whelming time for her. She goes out of the city weeping and goes back home rejoicing. What compassion, what love, I cannot understand it but I know it's true. A lowly, poor widow's weeping turning to joy.
Matthew 15:32 "Now Jesus called His disciples to Himself and said, 'I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way."
This was when Jesus fed the multitude with a little boy's lunch, seven loaves of bread and a few little fish.
A hungry multitude and a little boy's lunch and a compassionate Savior, altogether it made lunch for a multitude of people, four thousand men plus women and children. Can you imagine what that little boy thought and the story he had to tell? What about the story the multitude told? Compassion for the hungry.
Compassion for the weeping widow and compassion for the hungry multitude, the same compassion but two different circumstances.
Are you weeping? Are you hurting? Are you hungry? You have a compassionate Savior bending over you right now, you can't see Him but He is there wanting to comfort you and help you in your great time of need.
He comforts us and He supplies our needs, maybe not in the same way that He did then, but He still cares and takes care of us.
I remember one time when our first child was just a baby, sixty some years ago, and my husband was working for a little one man owner mill and he hadn't paid him and we were down to almost nothing in our cupboards. All I had to send him in his lunch was a quart of cherries that we had canned and nothing more.
It's been so long ago that I don't remember what happened but somehow we managed to feed our baby and have food. Another time when we were so poor and had two growing children, the church brought us food. So God does look after us when we are hungry and when I was sorrowing over my husband's death, He comforted me with His word and when I have been in pain, He has brought relief.
I know personally from experience that He is a compassionate Savior. Full of love and mercy for this fallen race and ready to lift us up and save us if we will let Him. Will you let Him lift you up and save you? He is willing, are you? He is your compassionate Savior and mine. I love Him, do you? I hope so. Grandma Joan.
No comments:
Post a Comment