Matchless: The Life and Love of JesusExemplo

Day 1: Introduction

First, read John 16:33 and then watch the video. 

Here are a few facts:

My father was born on May 21, 1945, and he died on April 3, 2019. 

He was brilliant. You would likely know some of his TV marketing campaigns. I can pretty much guarantee it. When he died, he had been married to my mother for more than forty years. He always greeted people with the same quickly raised hand, a tilted chin, and a smile that only showed his top teeth. 

He loved when I would put my sleeping bag next to his in the backyard so he could teach me about the night sky. I never understood more than ten percent of what he was saying, but I loved to listen to him.

He pinched his nose and tossed his head back when he was laughing his biggest laughs, and he called me “kid” for my entire life. 

I could fill pages with this kind of information.

But here’s the truth—you will never smell his cigars or hear his laughter. You can’t know what it’s like to settle into the nook of his chest when you’re crying or smell the old leather seats in the 1957 MGA we restored together. You can listen to me tell you everything you need to know in order to sketch an image, but you would never be able to paint it with all the nuances of color and shade.

When I think of my dad, I don’t recall facts; those are available to everyone. What no one else will ever know is the way it felt to be loved by him for forty-three years. It’s the colors that make the art mine.

And when it comes to Jesus, most of us can’t start there, can we? The facts are familiar, but the intimacy is not. 

His story has been told and retold for hundreds of years, but I can’t help but wonder if you’ve missed the part that makes it come to life. The part where He tells you what He has known before time began. The beautiful, impossible, unavoidable, life-shaking truth that drips color and life onto black and white pages. 

You, kid …

Yes, you. You aren’t just an observer. 

In fact, He has painted the nuanced colors of your life onto the canvas, and I wonder, Have you seen it there?

I know. I have a hard time with it too. But a wise man once taught me this simple lesson: I don’t have to understand the way the stars shift in order to love the voice of the teacher.

So join me on this adventure as we learn the ways and wonders of our matchless Savior. We may not be able to answer all the questions, but we’ll see the colors of His story and, in His story, find our own. 

Who is Jesus to you?