Day 14: Lionhearted
Revelations 5:5 - “...behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome…”
Copyright All images & writing © 2018 Charis Seed Photography All rights reserved
God is powerful.
Created the world, parted the red sea, pillar of fire by night, made the sun stand still.
Powerful.
All through the old testament the Bible gives us displays of God's power. It depicts a God that sends down fire and fights battles. He enabled a boy to topple a giant and a prophet to hold back the rain. These were the mighty feats that people have been writing songs about for thousands of years. God is strong. God is mighty.
He is the Lion of Judah.
These were the stories told in the darkness as a family lay in their beds. Children closed their eyes and pretended to be King David facing Goliath or Elijah calling down fire from the sky. And then, before they fell asleep, their Father would remind them, “A Messiah is coming. He will be a mighty warrior like David. He will be a King over all, forever.” And, for a moment, the weightiness of life was lessened for the hard working poor because of the hope that one day a Mighty and Just Deliver was coming. A Lion from the tribe of Judah who would roar with His mighty strength and devour His enemies. The Messiah was a type of superhero that today we would make a logo for and feature on a long-sleeved hoodie.This lionhearted super hero figure was a mythical cure-all. An eternal king that would dominate in military conquest like King David … AND a zealous prophet that would call down fire like Elijah … He would be as wise and discerning as King Solomon. He was going to be everything that everyone needed. That was the hope. We can suffer through this… people would think to themselves … because a savior is coming.
A savior that was expected to arrive with the imposing strength and charisma of a lion.But what arrived? A baby.
“That’s the baby? That’s the… (whispered) Messiah? Hmm… I don’t know - it’s a beautiful baby, don’t get me wrong. But he looks almost like my nephew.”
“What? Really? The priest at the temple said he was the Messiah? Well, I guess that’s something.”
“I was pretty over the moon when I had my first kid too Mary, but I didn’t go around tellin’ people a choir of angels was singing the night of his birth. That’s a bit much.”
It was an uphill battle to believe. And despite all those historically inaccurate paintings to the contrary, He didn’t have a halo around his head. In fact the reason painters add those halos is because without the halo Jesus looks like any other baby. Jesus was just so normal.
Normal. That’s a word that describes real-life heroes. Real heroes don’t wear silly outfits or design logos for themselves. They are heroes instead of trying to prove they are heroes. Jesus was, and still is, a lion in the form of a lamb. Even as an infant, reverent wise men would humble themselves before Him and a maniac king would fear him. From an external standpoint, Jesus’ ministry would be filled with gentle actions: Praying, Listening, Speaking, Touching. But, in the unseen, He was driving out the forces of darkness and restoring dignity to the defeated. Jesus was being the hero the people needed, not the hero they wanted.
In Jesus, we have a lion that stands with us. He offers us the strength of a lion. He doesn’t entice us to fly around in robot suits, but he leads us to be heroes every day. Don’t underestimate the power of your acts of kindness. You have a lion roaring on the inside of you!
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Copyright All images & writing © 2018 Charis Seed Photography