The Greatest Story Ever Told

the following is a guest post from a member in our community that i absolutely ADORE. Jane is like your favourite aunt, the kind of woman who you want to make proud of you and who will do all she can to reach and help you. we have continued our Film Fest "Jesus in our Living Rooms" and we went to Jane's place to see The Greatest Story Ever Told. after the movie she related this story and drew a line to how Jesus must've been seen in his travels. she's a gem and i love her dearly.


I realize you get what you pay for, so to speak, and that includes leading worship. If you are the leader, you reap the biggest rewards, not in the actual experience itself, but in all that leads up to it. The pay off is beforehand.
I have never led a Good Friday service before in our church community.
But for the last few weeks my antenna have been up……seeing meaning in many things that might have passed me by. Also added the worship prep is the series of movies our church has been holding in Holy Week, one or two a day from Wednesday to Saturday, with the theme of Jesus in there somewhere….sometimes more blatant than other times. Wednesday night we saw Cool Hand Luke. Beautiful colors and photography and a of subtle Jesus imagery that I missed the first time I saw it. But I didn’t have my antenna up when I watched it back then.
So Thursday I was trying to get to Superstore early, to beat the crowd and get my Easter fruit and chocolate duties accomplished. I stopped at the light, tapping my fingers on the wheel and glanced out the passenger window. There, walking briskly and purposefully through the grass on the boulevard was a young man, maybe mid thirties with a scarf tied around his head. My first thought was “gang bandanas”, then I looked down. He was wearing two long sleeved T-shirts with a dress shirt over top, cuffs undone and open at the front. I continued to look down. Grey jeans rolled up at the ankles and socks and runners. In his hand was a large brown leather bag, kind of like what a middle aged woman would carry in the 1960’s. Mmm…. I summed him up…not a gang type, not gay, poor and probably had some mental issues. Such a purposeful walk though. Where was he going? The light changed. Superstore was in sight. My foot was on the gas but he lingered on in my mind. Again, the gift of being tuned in, I think……which when it happens is truly grace…..would I have given this man a second look had he been walking purposefully on the sidewalk, dressed in a business suit and with an attaché case in his hand? How weird did Jesus look to those who just saw him passing by? Was he quickly written off as, “just a little off”? Poor and a few mental issues? I have returned to thinking about that 30 something year old often in these past few days. Who can ever know where God is? Who can ever know what God looks like? Who can ever know?