I Can Only Imagine...

“I Can Only Imagine”

Theology in the Trenches

by Kathleen Kjolhaug

Mamas have power. Dads do too, but when a mama’s girl picks her guy…things can get dicey. With four daughters, a number of them could attest to the fact that indeed this is true. Most often, behaviors tend to be universal, so I’m guessing that I’m not the only one out there.

What, exactly do we want for our daughters? Why, Jesus Himself, of course! At least that’s what we think we want.

We want Him smack dab in the middle of their hearts and their lives now because we know who He is and what He did. We know the sacrificial offerings that were given on behalf of all of mankind as He laid down His life for each and every one. We know that now because we have His Word. As He’s a man of His Word, we know it’s true.

Hindsight is always 20/20.  But just for a moment, let’s pretend we weren’t looking through the rearview mirror, and that we did not have the knowledge of who Jesus was and is. Would we have wanted Him?

Let’s just say that we were walking this earth the same time He was, and one of our daughters did bring Him home for dinner. Would He have been good enough for mama?

You know as well as I do, that permission to be out and about with Him would have been highly suspect. I can only imagine the conversation that would have ensued around the kitchen table.

“What? You are hanging out with this Jesus?”

“Rumor mill has it He’s just a bit controversial.”

“Homeless you say?”

“Does he have a degree?”

“Didn’t He wear those same clothes the last time He was here?”

“Right…His intentions are to just hang around as friends…I wasn’t born yesterday!”

 “Does He have any steady income?”

“Isn’t His just hair a little long?”

Would Jesus have been good enough for one of my daughters? I know myself well enough that it would have been a hard sell.

You see, trusting others with my daughters has never come easy. But the truth of the matter is that my daughters had shoes to fill in the eyes of the mamas of the men they dated as well. Yes, a mama is a mama and they, too, love their sons…as Mary loved Jesus.

Perhaps Mary would have been asking the same questions about my daughters had their paths crossed back in the day even if her son’s intentions were for salvation purposes.

However, I know we differ. I think both Jesus and Mary understood their roles in the big picture. I believe that Jesus knew that His job on earth was obedience unto the Father. And, I believe Mary’s job here on earth was to trust the Father with things she did not understand.

If only we, like Mary, could truly trust. Perhaps then, like Jesus, we would be solely about our Father’s business. By trusting, we’d not only know that there is a bigger picture, but that the big picture is His to see. The big picture is not ours to understand other than “it is for His glory and not our own that no man may boast” (Eph. 2:9).

I can only imagine. Amen.