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The Tenderness of God
As we are preparing for Spring Confirmation and discussing the attributes and functions of God, the Father, God, the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit, I want to focus on the Tenderness of God.
God the Father behaves with great tenderness towards His children. Picture with me, a loving parent watching a sleeping child. The parent bends down and ever so softly, kisses the child’s cheek. God is the good, good Father, always watching over His children.
Despite Israel’s being repeatedly disobedient, God’s unfailing compassion for them causes God to come to their rescue time and time again. Although they fall into idol worship, God longs for them to return in faithfulness.
God shows His tenderness towards us, when He pours Himself out in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus has a tenderness as both, the Good Shepherd and the Lamb of God. As the Good Shepherd, Jesus will leave the ninety-nine, to go in search of ONE lost sheep. As the Lamb of God, He is led, without protest to slaughter, so that we may have eternal life.
Jesus shows his compassion for the large crowds who surround Him. When they are hungry, he feeds them (all 5,000 plus, people). When they need healing, He heals them. He shows tenderness when He beckons the little children to, “Come,” even when the disciples try to shoo them away.
Jesus shows tender mercies to the down-trodden, the outcasts, and the despised, welcoming them, with open arms.
Jesus is courageous in His defense of the defenseless. Even as He hangs upon the cross, He has compassion for the thief who hangs next to Him. The thief believes. Jesus tells Him, he can look forward to Paradise…THAT VERY DAY!!
Jesus acts lovingly, as He prepares to leave the earth, and promises to go to “prepare a place” for us, in His Father’s House. They want us with them…forever!
Jesus is thinking of us, when He tells the disciples He will not leave them as orphans. He will ask the Father, and the Father will send a Helper…the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit acts in tenderness, gently landing upon Jesus’s shoulder, in the appearance of a dove. The Holy Spirit is pleased to live within us…to comfort us in our grief, to teach us, to guide us, to offer us wise counsel, to give us peace in the place of our fear, joy in exchange for our sorrows, to dispel loneliness, to strengthen our faith, to empower us, and to give us various, good gifts.
I love the Hymn in The Faith We Sing Hymnal, entitled, O’ Lord, Your Tenderness. Perhaps we will sing it soon.
O’Lord, your tenderness, melting all my bitterness; O’ Lord, I receive your love.
O’ Lord, your loveliness, changing my unworthiness; O’ Lord, I receive your love.
O’ Lord, I receive your love. O’ Lord, I receive your love.
This song reveals that ALL we must do to gain the tenderness of God is to RECEIVE it. What a beautiful gift, so very much like God’s Amazing Grace. The grace of God is costly for Jesus; but it is offered freely to us. All we must do is receive it. Oh yes, and ONE MORE THING…share it.
This brings to mind another song that is filled with the tenderness of God. It is in the UMH on page 389. You know this one. Here is the chorus:
Freely, freely, you have received. Freely, freely give.
Go in my name and because you believe, other will know that I live.
Our Confirmands have learned about the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. They have chosen to commit their lives to the Godhead. I hope you will renew your own commitment, as they are, “Confirmed in Christ” this coming Sunday.
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