The 3 by Max Lucado

The 3 by Max Lucado

Author:Max Lucado [Lucado, Max]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2018-08-02T00:00:00+00:00


6

THE INVITATION

Two of our three daughters were born in the South Zone of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We lived in the North Zone, separated from our doctor’s office and hospital by a tunnel-pierced mountain range. During Denalyn’s many months of pregnancy, we made the drive often.

We didn’t complain. Signs of life do a samba on every street corner. Copacabana and her bathers. Ipanema and her coffee bars. Gavea and her glamour. We never begrudged the South Zone forays. But they sure did bewilder me. I kept getting lost.

I’m directionally challenged anyway, prone to take a wrong turn between the bedroom and bathroom. Complicate my disorientation with randomly mapped three-hundred-year-old streets, and I don’t stand a chance.

I had one salvation. Jesus. Literally, Jesus. The Christ the Redeemer statue. The figure stands guard over the city, one hundred and twenty-five feet tall with an arm span of nearly a hundred feet. More than a thousand tons of reinforced steel. The head alone measures ten feet from chin to scalp. Perched a mile and a half above sea level on Corcovado Mountain, the elevated Jesus is always visible. Especially to those who are looking for it. Since I was often lost, I was often looking. As a sailor seeks land, I searched for the statue, peering between the phone lines and rooftops for the familiar friendly face. Find him and find my bearings.

John 3:16 offers you an identical promise. The verse elevates Christ to thin-air loftiness, crowning him with the most regal of titles: “One and Only Son.”

Jesus enjoys an intimacy with God, a mutuality the Father shares with no one else. He “exists at the very heart of the Father” (John 1:18 MSG).

When Jesus says, “In my Father’s house are many mansions” (John 14:2 NKJV), count on it. He knows. He has walked them.

When he says, “You are worth more than many sparrows” (Matt. 10:31), trust him. Jesus knows. He knows the value of every creature.

When Christ declares, “Your Father knows what you need” (Matt. 6:8 NAB), believe it. After all, “He was in the beginning with God” (John 1:2 NAB).

Heaven’s door has one key, and Jesus holds it.

Think of it this way. You’re a fifth grader studying astronomy. The day you read about the first mission to the moon, you and your classmates pepper the teacher with space-travel questions.

“What does moon dust feel like?”

“Can you swallow when there’s no gravity?”

“What about going to the bathroom?”

The teacher does the best she can but prefaces most replies with “I would guess . . .” or “I think . . .” or “Perhaps . . .”

How could she know? She’s never been there. But the next day she brings a guest who has. Neil Armstrong enters the room. Yes, the “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” Neil Armstrong.

“Now ask your questions,” the teacher invites. And Astronaut Armstrong answers each with certainty. He knows the moon; he’s walked on it. No speculation or hesitation— he speaks with conviction.

So did Jesus. “He was teaching them as one who had authority” (Matt.



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