Someone Who Understands

A farmer was hurriedly nailing a sign to his fence that read “20 puppies for sale” when he felt a tug on his overalls. He wiped the sweat off of his face and looked down. There was a little boy he guessed to be 7 or 8 years old. “I want to buy one of those puppies!” the boy said excitedly. “I don’t know about that,” replied the farmer. “These pups came from fine parents and cost a lot of money…” The little boy dug deep in his pocket and pulled out 32 cents, “is this enough for a look?” the little boy said. “Sure,” said the farmer and with that he hollered “here Dolly” and let out a great whistle; out of the barn came running Dolly, followed by a parade of little balls of fur. The little boy pressed his face against the fence, his eyes dancing with delight as he watched the puppies falling over one another.

The boy noticed something else moving around in the barn, and then finally another ball emerged. This one much smaller than the others and hobbling as it made its way out of the barn. “I want that one!” said the little boy. The farmer knelt down by the little boy. “Son, you don’t want that puppy. It will never be able to run and play with you like the other puppies would.” With that the boy stepped away from the fence and started rolling up his pant leg, revealing a steel brace running down both sides of his leg and attached to a special shoe. Looking back at the farmer the boy said, “you see sir…I don’t run too well myself and he will need some who understands.”

What an accurate portrait of Jesus! He took on Himself human flesh, experienced human trials, and suffered pain so that He might understand. The writer of Hebrews says, “He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He understands our pain!

Likewise, we are called to understand. 2 Corinthians 1 reminds us that we have been allowed to experience trial, pain, and hardship, so that we can experience God’s comfort AND, in the experience of that comfort, come along side of others who may be hurting and in need of understanding.

We are not called to diagnose the reasons that others may hobble. We are certainly not called to run ahead of them and adopt the “catch up with me if you can but I am going on without you” mentality. We are called to understand, to hold up heavy hands and strengthen feeble knees. We have been called to a ministry of active understanding, one another's burdens, and providing support and strength to those who are also running the race, but running it with a limp.