Un-Kingly Behavior

Thursday, April 24, 2014 Posted by Debbie Legg

Decades ago my father-in-law bought Mary Gregory’s farm. Part of the agreement was that though he owned the entire property, she could live in the house for as long as she wanted.

“Mary,” he asked her one day, “don’t you get lonely out here all by yourself?”

“Why, no,” the elderly widow smiled. “Me and the Lord just have a good time every day.”

I love the mental picture that conjures: Sweet Mary reading or quilting while Jesus--white robe with royal purple sash, sandals on His feet--sits in the chair next to her, the two of them gabbing away.

That picture for me is about as far away from typical kingly behavior as you can get.

But, of course, we’re not talking about a typical king.

Don’t we love when The Queen of England visits a hospital, or plants flowers, or throws out the first pitch at a baseball game? It’s the novelty of it (not to mention the entourage) that captures our attention. How much more, then, to think the King of Kings would throw His sash over His shoulder and pick up a quilting needle to finish a square?

Jesus is not overseeing from a high and lofty seat in space. He’s at every big event and every laundry day. He is at the tee-ball game and the hospital room, when we curl our toes and roll our eyes. He is inside us and beside us, all at once.

What king could do that?

What king would want to?

I'll tell you. It's The King sitting in the chair in a long-ago farmhouse in Southern Illinois.