For the pretty and beautiful people of the Kingdom of God.

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Olives and grapes.

 

Olives are sour and grapes are sweet but raisins are sweeter.

 

Just as Sweet and Sour are different from one another, so is pretty and beautiful.

One is permanent while the other is fleeting. “Clever” is also different from

“Wisdom,” just as pride is different from humility.

 

The Holy Spirit is not clever but wise, sweet and beautiful.

When the first visible signs of old age where the pain and sufferings popped their beards on my face, they were visible even to my partial eyes in a picture taken by my son in Bogota, I asked him to erase them.

 

Nathaniel answered without losing a heartbeat, “Well-earned wrinkles dad ... well-earned wrinkles.”

 

What a disgustingly joyful words that of my son and pastor to lead me to think of my wrinkles as badges of honor. This instantly took me back all the way to Isaiah 53 where I often go in a visit to contemplate the sweet and BEAUTIFUL face of Jesus. Here he is described as one who was found without attraction and as one from whom men hide their faces (in shame?).

 

Perhaps you are one who is in the pandemic finding yourself alone and rejected as were the lepers in the time of Jesus? Are you alone but not ALONE?

 

Perhaps you have come to the point of saying like Jesus, “You will all abandon me ...? but I am not alone... my Father is with me”

 

Remember my friends that the greatest friend of God the Father was Jesus the only begotten Son of God. Remember also that God did not spare his own Son but in agony he allowed his Son to go through the fires to burn away any dust of our impurity that was imputed to him on our behalf.

 

Jesus was not an olive grown in the bubble of a “Greenhouse” but a raisin grown under the scourging Sun of the Prairie sweetened by the kiss of the Middle East Sun.

 

I happily remember my friend the Rev. Tim Tinsley. I used to call him “Oso Grande” that means “Big Bear” and he would call me, “Little Bear.” I told him the Spanish popular proverb, “El hombre es como el Oso cuanto más feo más hermoso.” Which translated literally means, “A man is like a Bear, the uglier he is the more beautiful he is.” (Humor)

 

Absalom the son of King David was famously handsome but his heart was ugly and he died miserably having broken his father’s heart by his bad testimony and persecution full of hate and resentment.

 

Jesus on the other hand was also known as the Son of David. He was not famous for his looks but for his Loving heart. He not only did good work pleasing to the Father but he gave himself for us.

 

The friends of God whether olives or grapes become wine or oil only after having been in the olive press or the grape press of affliction. There like an olive and a grape with a little whining and moaning give a little wine and little oil for the Master’s table.

 

Forget a wrinkle free life ...only my grandma was pretty close to being both “Pretty” and “Beautiful” because she was so spiritual even on earth.

 

Judge by her picture and you will have an idea of what a friend of God looks like.

 

This was a little bragger of Jesus on duty.

 

Gerry Gutierrez. 

 

PS.  

My Grandma, the "Pretty Beautiful lady of Jesuds."

The Sons of the Prairie like raisins kissed by the Sun.

Some young and pretty people in the world are like olives unkissed by the Sun.