Bridging the Gap

Somewhere, somehow in the thick of those long, undocumented years, Jesus awakened to his divine nature and calling. He realized and accepted that he was the Son of God, eternally existent as God and yet temporally present as a man. More than a prophet and more than a king, Jesus was with God in the beginning, created all that is, and was now on earth to offer his sinless life as a sacrifice for our sins.

Were it not true, such a belief would be the height of delusion. But the deluded do not act as Jesus acted. They wear their assumptions clumsily, greedily, and loudly. Not so with Jesus. He was comfortably clothed in the supreme mystery of the Incarnation. He wore his divine power with humility and grace.

Every day following this awakening Jesus would have wondered, Is today the day? Imagine Jesus, with God’s divine power and calling breathing and bursting within him, waking up each morning, turning to Father God in prayer and asking, “Are we there yet?!” Day after day, month after month, and year after year Father God simply replied, “No, my Son. We are not there yet. Today is not the day.”

Now place that private reality side by side with Jesus’ public reality. Picture Jesus—still with God’s divine power and calling breathing and bursting within him—waking up each morning and walking throughout his town and region. Most folks would probably not even notice him (after all, he was an un-celebrated boy from an un-royal family). Some might possibly even scorn him (because of his roots or the rumors that may have surrounded his conception). And all would definitely underestimate him. (How could they do otherwise?!)

What a combination! During these uncelebrated years, Jesus submitted to a seemingly delayed destiny. A God-sized mission pulsated in his heart, but he was not free to explain it, proclaim it, or actively pursue it. Onlookers saw only the tip of the iceberg of who Jesus truly was, and they could have never imagined the indestructible greatness growing just beneath the surface of Jesus’ unapplauded life.

What would that experience build in someone?

What does it build in us? What grows in that underestimated gap between God’s calling and others’ perceptions, between our true capabilities and our current realities? Most of us struggle if our dreams are delayed one year, let alone twenty! We find God’s pauses perplexing. They seem to be a waste of our potential. When those pauses extend beyond what we can comprehend or explain (say, for instance, three days), we often spiral into selfdoubt or second-guessing.

But in anonymous seasons we must hold tightly to the truth that no doubt strengthened Jesus throughout his hidden years: Father God is neither care-less nor cause-less with how he spends our lives. When he calls a soul simultaneously to greatness and obscurity, the fruit—if we wait for it—can change the world.

From anonymous: Jesus' hidden years... and yours
© Alicia Britt Chole

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