The Beggar - Addison Zanda

"His eyes were immeasurably kind... The beggar took my head in his hands and looked into my eyes. His look was so powerful that for a moment I doubted my identity. I am that look, I said to myself... But his expression radiated kindness" (187).

Within this simple quote from the book, the beggar almost takes a resemblance to God. Many times we push back God in a tough situation or because its not how our friends act. Sometimes we fail to know our identity and our relationship with Christ. Know that we are a masterpiece, not a mistake. Our meaning and identity go hand-in-hand too good with each other. Ecclesiastes 12:13 says, "Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone's duty." In other words, God gives meaning to our lives. No God, no meaning. Without God, we are just a bunch of molecules thrown together by chance. If there is no God, we are headed towards impersonal nothing. Like God, the beggar shows a deeper kindness that we sometimes can't truly comprehend. Jesus looks at us, stares at us, because he truly cares about us. Why wouldn't we do the same back. Knowing how much God thinks about us should give us an incredible feeling of worth. Our response to God's constant attentiveness should never be out of obligation. God is anxious for an intimate relationship with us. There is a personal God who created you, knows you by name, loves you, and wants you to know him intimately. He gives purpose and meaning to life as he calls us to follow him in his grand adventure.

I commented on Cade and Luke’s post

Comments

Cade Wood said…
I like this. I did not recognize this as I read it, but after you described it I can somewhat see where you're coming from. I really like how you said that our response to God should not be out of obligation. I wrote my blog post on how we should live for Christ because he died for us. Not that we are obligated to, or should do it because it checks off the list, but that we should want to love Him because of His incredible love for us.
Spencer Wood said…
yeah, there is definitely an "in-human" character within the beggar. I think he may be a guardian angel type figure. but I'm not sure if Hasidism has figures like that or not but that's my theory.