Reading Time: 2 minutesFor we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet he did not sin (Hebrews 4:15, NIV).
My daughter and I walked down the stairs. “Mom, step over here,” she ordered. Absentmindedly, I obeyed and landed in a puddle.
She blushed as I caught my breath. “I already stepped in the water, and I didn’t want to be wet alone,” she confessed.
Olivia wanted to experience the rough parts of life together. The wet socks and bad days. How could I stay mad? Touched by her need to be understood, I surrendered my right to remain dry. I commiserated with my daughter, experiencing the sting together and then hunting for new socks.
What if this is how God feels about you? About me? He would rather pay the price to understand our pain than to watch us suffer alone. I have a High Priest who sympathizes with my pain, frustrations, sins, and struggles. He was rejected by followers and family. I get the drift that He was a couch surfer, transitionally homeless and yet King of all. His friends couldn’t wrap their minds around His words. This holy Man walked into the puddles instead of watching His kids suffer alone. Jesus knew we would suffer, and He wanted to relate to our scars. How else could we truly adore Him and choose to follow in His footsteps unless He had journeyed a hard road?
Unlike all of us, Jesus walked this hard road without sin, without swearing under His breath or binge-eating chocolates. In the trial, He didn’t gossip or become vindictive. He went through the wet socks, understanding our plight, and He stayed pure in heart through the pain.
This gives us hope and direction for our own soul conditions. We, too, can walk the high road when faced with a trial, since His Spirit lives inside us.
I joined in my daughter’s discomfort, soggy socks, reminding me our High Priest is in our hard times. He knows what struggles are like. He will give us the tools (His Word, His church, His Holy Spirit) to walk uprightly through, and even beyond, the moments that leave us catching our breath.
In our loneliest days, we find comfort in this reality. Soggy socks remind us we are not alone in trials.
- Soggy Socks - January 14, 2022
- Thanksgiving Without - November 13, 2020
