Before I Met You.

This is the third installment in our series “Masterpiece”.

Good morning, peeps! Let me kick things off with two of the passages from last week. These two talk about Jesus’ first encounter with Peter or rather, Peter’s first encounter with Jesus.
Mark 1
¹⁴ Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, ¹⁵ And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. ¹⁶ Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. ¹⁷ And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. ¹⁸ And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him.
Luke 5
And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, ² And saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets. ³ And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon’s, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship.

Let’s look at my “passage” at the beginning of this blog. “These two talk about Jesus’ first encounter with Peter or rather, Peter’s first encounter with Jesus.” Did that jump out at you? I typed the first part and God cleared His throat and was like, “Ahem! You may want to rephrase that, kiddo.” Remember when I said, “Jesus meets us right where we are”? You do know that the “you” who first received Jesus into your heart on whatever date it was is not the “you” Jesus originally met, right? This is so cool! As my mama likes to say, “Before you were a twinkle in your daddy’s eye…” I’ve got Scripture for you. Jeremiah 1:5 (KJV) reads:

“Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”

Good grief. Jesus had met Peter way back in the day. Not only met him, but knew him. Yep. Let’s talk about that. This year, I will be going to my 30th high school class reunion. What kinda mess is that?! My thirtieth. Something is not right. Don’t get me wrong – I know I am blessed to see it because I’ve lost a few classmates, but man. Thirty years?? It’s been that long since I’ve weighed just 100 lbs?? And had zero body fat?? Sorry – I got side-tracked. I was at my old high school yesterday to conduct interviews with students who are applying for internships with the company I work for. The school is completely revamped – thank the Lord – but I can still walk the halls and memories from “way back when” are waiting to greet me. One of my old classmates works at the school and I saw him yesterday. First thing out of his mouth and I do mean first (didn’t even say ‘hi’, ‘kick rocks’ or ‘wassup’): “Girl!! You look good! Boy, I remember when you–.”

Fun fact: the mama-stare can stop a grown man in his tracks. Try it.

I may have prevented him from finishing that sentence, but he had more to say. Like, shut uhhhhhhpp. He even went back to the first time he’d met me. We were in the 4th grade. Who in the world remembers…? All I remember is that we were in the same class, but this man remembered the exact moment he’d met me. I must’ve made quite an impression…at 9. “D, I remember you walked into the classroom looking like a tiny skeleton! You were so skinny! But you were cute, with your long ponytails. You weren’t as pretty as you are now, but I knew you’d grow into it.”

Such optimism at 9. God bless’m.

Here’s the thing about when Jesus first met us…you know where I’m going, dontcha? Here’s the thing about when Jesus first met us: He saw our end from the beginning and knew we’d grow into it. Ha! That tickles me so much AND I have Scripture to back it up! This is Isaiah 46:8-10 and I will leave you with it:
Remember this, keep it in mind,
take it to heart, you rebels.
Remember the former things, those of long ago;
I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me.
I make known the end from the beginning,
from ancient times, what is still to come.
I say, ‘My purpose will stand,
and I will do all that I please.

Check God out! Did you hear Him say, “My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please”? With a period. If that ain’t a mic drop, I don’t know what is.

So, my fellow piles of magnificent ruins, how about we meet the masterpieces Jesus has already met, with His Imma-do-as-I-please self?

–d.