God Gently Stooped Down – In Verse

/ pastorpete51 / 7 Comments

I shared a couple of days ago on the topic of God stooping down and it seemed to not only strike a chord with some of my readers, – Thanks guys for responding and commenting. But that phrase “God stooped down” resonated over and over in my heart. I could hear it at night as I lay in bed and in the morning again it rolled over and over in my thoughts as I went about my chores. I hope you will like the little verse I wrote today that shares as best as I am able the echoes in my heart.

Who is like the Lord our God, the One who sits enthroned on high, who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth? Psalm 113:5-6, NIV

On the sixth day in morning the Lord God stooped down
Scooped clay from the earth to make man from the ground
He bent down lower still to breathe life into him
Then smiled to see man’s first day begin

As they walked through the garden God showed him the trees
The elephants, zebras and mountains and seas
But with all that God made Adam still was alone
So God gently bent down to form Eve from his bones

But when they saw fruit that God said not to take
They ignored His command and death was awake
Yet God wasn’t finished - He did not walk away
He just waited and watched till His chosen day

When at Bethlehem’s stable He gently stooped down
And entered our world in the dark of that town
Till on a hill and a cross God stooped lower still
Took the nails and the thorns so we could be healed

Then sadly His friends took Him down from the tree
Placed Him in the tomb where no one could see
Till on the third day God rolled back the stone
And gave us new life as He gently stooped down!

God Gently Stooped Down by Peter Caligiuri copyright 2021 
all rights reserved

He Gently Stooped Low

/ pastorpete51 / 4 Comments

He Gently Stooped Low

You have given me the shield of your salvation, and your right hand supported me, and your gentleness made me great. Psalm 18:35 ESV

While the ESV gives us the picture of a Mighty God who is gently on our side, the old NIV renders that same phrase as, “He stopped low. Like Gandalf entering through a Hobbit doorway, in the Lord of the Rings, Jesus had to bend low enough to enter our world through the stable doorway in Bethlehem. He went to begging blind men, destitute widows and outcast lepers. Jesus had compassion on hungry listeners and washed the dirty feet of disciples. Jesus’ right hand was both gentle enough to bless a child and strong enough to lift a paralyzed man to His feet.

And when His time came He carried the weight of His cross to the top of Golgotha where those gentle hands were nailed to the wood. Then as He stooped His lowest in death, Jesus reached lower still as we were falling deep into our sins, and caught us, raised us up and gave us the greatness of His salvation. Oh how mighty and gentle is our Jesus! He gently stooped low enough to save us and then shared His greatness with His children!

Of Lemons and Thorns

/ pastorpete51 / 4 Comments

The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet. Proverbs 27:7 KJV

In our tiny backyard stands one small lemon tree that my father planted, with a harvest of sweet lemons so large and numerous that they overwhelm us as well as all our neighbors and friends! Now apple trees seem prettier and their fruit sweeter than our lemon, but the humble lemon, with its thorns, teaches about sweetness in a way no apple can hope to match. In today’s verse, we see that same contrast between sweet and bitter things in life. Solomon tells us that there are times when something even as sweet as a honey comb is unappreciated. Just as at harvest time apples become so commonplace that folks just whizz by the orchards on the way to grab fast food for their family. Maybe that is why God chooses to hedge in some of his trees with thorns so that people will learn value of the fruit.

Photo by Santiago Manuel De la Colina on Pexels.com

Maybe in your life a thorn of a bitter experience has left a scar on your heart. But God is not through with you nor is He absent from the situation you are in. Your life right now may be filled with thorns just like our little lemon. But God sometimes chooses to guard His sweetest fruit with the longest thorns. He knows every bitter thing we are facing and our past hurts, but He wants us to see that thorns are simply reminders of all He has in store when we hunger for the sweet harvest of what He has chosen in this season of our lives!