The Elephant – Oxygen

We got another four inches of snow last night.  I saw one of my neighbors  shoveling his driveway.  I was concerned for him.  He looks to be about my age and we all know that old men should not shovel snow.  I don’t.  It costs me about 30 dollars each time and we have had a lot of each time.  It might have cost me 300 dollars this winter.  It seems like a lot of money but when one puts it into perspective who wouldn’t spend 300 dollars not to have a heart attack.  I am told your heart starts to hurt for lack of oxygen.  Something has blocked its flow.

Jesus is the oxygen for mankind.  Our hearts hurt for lack of Jesus.  It is subtle at first but each time the pressure gets worse until the elephant steps on your chest.  The elephant has certainly stepped on the chest of mankind.  The news is filled with so much devastating pain.  It ranges from individual murders to mass murders by governments trying not only to attack their neighbors but sometimes as we see their own people.

Jesus really is the breath of life.  He started in Genesis when He knelt in the grass over Adam and breathed into Him life.  It happened again for Jarius’s daughter and on the highway for the son of the widow of Nain.  He is life itself.  In John 11 Lazarus’ sisters said, “If you had been here our brother would not have died.”   You know – they were right.  But the important thing He came.  And when Jesus comes life comes.  Oxygen comes. The pain goes away because He is everything He said He is.  He is the resurrection and the life.

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 1, 2011

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