LHM Daily Devotions - LOVING ATTENTION

"LOVING ATTENTION"

Mar. 10, 2019

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

~ Colossians 1:15 (ESV)

Have you ever tried to draw or paint a picture of another person? If you have, you know how carefully you look at him or her; you notice the texture of his skin, all the subtle colors in her hair; you gaze, you fill up your eyes with the way the person walks and moves and sits. It's rather like love. You notice and pay attention to everything.

Isaiah the prophet did this for Jesus. The Holy Spirit helped him to know, hundreds of years in advance, exactly what Jesus would be like when He came. And Isaiah painted His portrait, lovingly and exactly, in chapter 53 of the book of Isaiah.

How did he show us Jesus? He saw that Jesus would be humble, with nothing in His appearance to attract us. He would be a man well-acquainted with sorrow and grief, someone marked by loss. More than that, He would be familiar with rejection—and that by the very people He came to save. Jesus would be misunderstood and mistreated and finally killed. And He would rise again.

Isaiah had his eyes fixed on Jesus. Jesus was the heart of what he wanted to know, of what he intended to pass on to everyone who would listen. And this is true for us too, isn't it? Jesus is the One we love, the One we watch with all our hearts. And that's because He has loved us first.

Surely, He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows" (Isaiah 53:4). It's easy to feel forgotten by God when bad things happen. But Isaiah shows us that never, never for a single moment, has the Lord turned His attention away from us. He not only knows our griefs, He has carried them. Our suffering has become His own—because He loves us.

THE PRAYER: Lord, Your love and mercy shine from You. Draw us closer to You every day. Amen.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:

• When have you studied someone intensely because you loved him or her?

• Which verse in Isaiah's description of Jesus (Isaiah 53) means the most to you, and why?

• Since Jesus is the image of the invisible God, what does that tell you about God's personality? About His attitude toward you?

Lenten Devotions were written by Dr. Kari Vo. Use these devotions in your newsletter and bulletin! Used by permission; all rights reserved by the Int'l LLL (LHM).
Have you ever tried to draw or paint a picture of another person?