Gentleness.

In ninth grade, my friends and I were in a health class where the assigned homework involved babysitting a raw egg for a whole week. Our job was to carry this raw egg round with us; it was to be our constant companion for gym class, pre-Calc, Physics, even in Woodshop. The end goal of this project was a to equip us through experience to better understand what it would be like to take care of a fragile little baby.

I think the initial idea was not a bad one but it lacked in a couple of levels. There was no emotional attachment to that raw egg. In fact, most of us ended up boiling the eggs so that they wouldn’t be as messy if we dropped it or bumped it.

Is that a good picture of gentleness? Taking care of a raw egg or a soft-boiled egg for a week?

Gentleness is defined as the application and administration of gentle strength. It denotes the amicable demonstration of potent energy for the benefit of an object such as a puppy, a baby, a person, an elderly citizen, etc.

One of my favorite pictures of gentleness is a combat soldier with his M-16 holding a small child who is scared and lonely. That soldier has such strength and power but is administering that strength and power properly as he cradles the little child and provides for the child’s immediate needs.

God operates with gentleness as he quietly and softly enters into a newly shattered world where his kids (Adam and Eve) are scared and lonely. They are broken and they do not know a proper way forward. Their conviction is to hide in fear. The reason for their spooked demeanor is that they smashed God’s one law.

As a parent, I deal with disobedience, initially with anger, then possibly feelings of disappointment and even sorrow. God’s statute has been broken by these children and instead of anger, which was deserved, He comes in gentleness to meet them and their hurt. He comes to apply strength of character in order to meet the needs of these tumbled and tortured souls: His purpose is to heal!

God’s actions in the Garden of Eden foreshadowed the intensity of John 3:17, one of my favorite New Testament verses that encapsulates the idea of gentleness. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17).

This weekend we will be experiencing the words of Psalm 51. The Scriptures reveal truths about God and they help us to rest at ease in this troubled world with our jostled hearts. Psalm 51 takes us to that point of peace and joy by reminding our hearts of God’s cleansing actions carried out through Jesus.

“Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit” (Psalm 51:7-12).

Blessings to you all, In Christ Jesus!