Knowing the End from the Beginning

"...for I am God, and there is none else;
I am God, and there is none like Me,
Declaring the end from the beginning,
and from ancient times
the things that are not yet done..."
(Isaiah 46:9-10 KJV)


I wonder...

when Jesus was a boy
in His father's carpentry shop,
hammering nails into wood,
did it bring Him pain
beyond His years
to know in His mind
the tearing of His own flesh?

I wonder...

when He pulled on
His sandals each morning,
did His imagination
ever torture Him
with the agony of His feet
being nailed to the tree?

And as a young man,
when He combed His hair
and groomed His beard,
did it hurt Him even then
to think of the thorny crown
to be driven into His head,
and of His beard being plucked out
by murderous fingers of hate?

And as an adult,
when He lovingly used His hands
to heal the sick and blind,
and as He held out His arms
to welcome the children
or to hug His beloved disciples
closer to His side,
did He ever think of how His hands
would be ripped by the nails...
or that His arms
would be torn from the sockets
by His own weight on the cross,
and that His side
would be pierced through
by the sword?

I wonder.

Yes, surely our grief
He has suffered Himself...
surely He carried our sorrows.
(Isaiah 53:4)

[ by: Connie Hinnen Cook (cjcook@mynewroads.com) -- from Connie Hinnen Cook ]