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Hidden in Plain Sight

Sometimes it's hidden away in a children's book.  The truth I mean.   We hunt for it like the littles hunt for eggs.  And sometimes it's right there underneath our noses.  Staring at us from the colorful pages as our fingers skim across.

The picture shows that hill where Jesus died.  Three shadowy crosses are silhouetted against a dark sky.  And I read about the exchange between the three dying men; the one in the middle is the God-man.  How odd, I thought, that Jesus would share his crucifixion with these strangers.  That God would orchestrate the other men's crosses being forever remembered in books about the resurrection even 2000 years later.

What a curious conversation as they hung there with life ebbing away.  The final breaths struggling in and out while voices cracked and blood dripped. One spending the last of himself to ridicule the God-man hanging between them.  The other asking for mercy even as the sun was setting on him with finality.

And the God of the universe made sure the words were captured.  Right there in the pages with the picture of the three rugged crosses.  Suddenly I saw it.  All of mankind wrapped up right there in that illustration.  We all are mortal.  We all will face the last sunset.  And we all respond to the God-man.  There are only two choices.  Either we push him away and cling to our bitterness and our wounded pride or we humble ourselves and ask for forgiveness and mercy.  Rebellion or Remembrance.  What will we say to the God-man in our critical moment?  He is the chief cornerstone.  Either Jesus is the foundation for a life or a stumbling block upon which we are broken.

We can close our eyes to the cross but still it looms before us.  And we all make a choice.  Between those crosses I mean.  Which one will we crawl up on?  For it is appointed unto man to die once, and after that to face  judgement (Heb. 9:27).  Jesus hangs in the middle.  Two roads diverge.  Two destinies stand ruggedly before us against the back drop of life.  He alone is the central point upon which we will determine our future.  History is divided by his life and death.  And so we are divided by his life and death.  Two thieves on two crosses but two very different eternal outcomes.

Don't close your eyes.  The truth is hidden right there in plain sight.  Captured in the bright pages of a child's book.  The fate of all humanity wrapped up in the image of those three crosses.

He didn't stay there, my friends.  There is resurrection.  It is real.  It is for you.  What will you choose?




"Choose this day whom you will serve... But as for me and my house, we will serve The Lord."    Joshua 24:15

James 4:6
6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
“God opposes the proud
 But he gives Grace to the humble.”[c]

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