Jesus, the jabberwocky?

There are people who are very talkative, plain loquacious. You can’t get near them but they immediately open their mouth and let out a 15 minute soliloquy. My wife is a good example of this. And I love her to death. I’m not much of a talker, so we are like hand in glove, (or mouth in ear.)

I’m not a good communicator; I guess that explains my preference in writing. But my wife is a natural at communication, lives for it, and speaks three languages. Sometimes she is standing in a long line at the credit union or grocery store—perfect time to strike up a conversation! Some people don’t want to converse with her. Poor them! They are going to have to, like it or not! Zeny is the kind that either you love her or you hate her. There is no middle ground. And after 23 years of her talking and me listening, she’s kind of grown on me!

I’m beginning to see something about Jesus on this thought. Does the Lord start talking just as soon as we come to Him? Is Christ a jabberwocky? Is He so full of lessons to teach us that we don’t get a moment’s rest? Is a relationship with Him destined to be a never ending college degree program? Is our Friend in the heavens so learned compared to us that He finds it necessary to bombard us with all His wisdom, whether we like it or not?

I suspect some people believe this of Him. They think that He is all about a program, busyness, that He is simply goal oriented with a schedule to meet, and nothing more, a workaholic who automatically assumes the same for us. Maybe that’s because His people are that way, and since they are very prone to advertise their connection with Him, He ends up with a bad rap. It’s amazing He has stayed with us after all that we’ve done to His name. Wonderful grace!

Who would want to come to a Jesus like that described above? In reality, Christ was the supreme psychologist, the master teacher, a wise trainer of self-sacrifice, the stuff of true leadership. A wonderful counselor, He was one who knew the needs of humanity, inside and out. It doesn’t take the average person long to learn that a mindless taskmaster doesn’t make a good friend or teacher. It’s true He had a goal to reach when He was here. He had a new organization to establish on unheard of, unearthly principles with twelve men, and He only had 3 ½ years to do it in. His disciples were so slow of heart and mind and faith. Yet by His treatment of them they counted it the highest privilege to come to Him, always welcome to crowd into His presence. The attention He gave each one, the personalized lessons tailor-made from day to day events, the patience and gentleness, even in His reproofs, endeared Him to His little family of students, and left them deeply in wonderment and knowing deep down that He had been the Messiah, Prince of heaven and King of love.

He wasn’t always talking. Often He was asking a question and listening to the reply. Often He taught by example. Often a lesson came by means of His allowing a foreseen trial to teach for Him, needing only His short cap on the lesson. And then He was the master of getting some grand lesson to come out of the mouth of the person to whom He was conversing. “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!” Matt. 16:16. “He saved others, Himself He could not save.” Matt. 27:42. “He hath done all things well.” Mk. 7:37. “What good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” Matt. 19:16.

So coming to Jesus will truly be a learning experience, but it won’t ever be a chore. In fact it will be just the opposite; it will be a restful, exhilarating experience, an endless, blessed Sabbath. Will it be all ease and laid back? No. Will it ever be demanding? Yes. But He has a way of always keeping His demands doable. Will He ever ask us to do the impossible—maybe feed 5,000 people with 5 loaves of bread, or its equivalent? Quite possibly He will pull a heavy requirement on us sometimes. But the intimate fellowship we have with Him and His humble unselfishness and kindness toward us will constrain us to follow His directions, no matter how difficult.

So is a relationship with Jesus simply an arrangement for Him to load us down with all that He knows? On the other extreme, will it decline into simply idleness or an infatuated romance? Never. There will be precious time alone, just being together with God, knowing He is present, and bonding closely together; but there will also be His instructions and lessons, a school for us to enter, an everlasting training program from which we never graduate, broken by many intimate moments, just Jesus and me.