Mary on the Birth of Jesus
Here I am, sitting in a humble shed surrounded by my tired husband, smelly animals, and some complete strangers. Who could have guessed that this would be the setting of the happiest moment of my life? These last nine months have been very trying on both Joseph and me. I certainly did not expect to have a child any time soon, let alone the Son of God. Saying I was shocked when that angel came and told me that I would bear the Messiah would be an understatement. However, Joseph and I soon grew more comfortable with the idea, even though it was a bit disheartening to hear the ridicule of those neighbors who thought I had been unfaithful to my husband. But now, even after all that trouble of traveling here to Bethlehem, I am more full of love and faith than ever. The wonderful gifts of the gold, frankincense, and myrrh brought by the three nice men are great, but even more, I just love to hear how they call my son king. Just staring into my Jesus’ eyes makes me feel safe and overwhelmed with love not only for him but also for everyone around me. Feeling the warmth of my beloved son as I hold him assures me that everything will turn out all right.
John on Jesus' Baptism
I’ve known Jesus all of my life. Growing up, we were pretty much the same age and since we were cousins, we spent a lot of time together. He was always very nice to me and really had a fantastic way of saying things. Our family all knew that big things were in store for my cousin, after all, God had specially sent Him here. Today, as I was preaching to the Pharisees and Sadducees about the Messiah who would baptize the world with the Holy Spirit instead of water, Jesus walked by and I immediately saw that he was going to be the savior that I had preached of so often. I tried to get Jesus to baptize me, for I knew that he could cure any doubt or ailment that I had. However, he told me that I was to baptize him. I was completely shocked that I was going to be the man to baptize the savior who was going to take the world’s sin away. Still, I did what he said, and once I had, his body became very bright and brilliant and a dove came and hovered above us. I cannot fully describe the beauty of the scene that occurred today. To top it all off, the Lord’s voice then peacefully said, almost in a whisper, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” I will never forget what happened down at the river today. From now on, Jesus isn’t just my cousin. He is my Savior.
Satan on the Temptation in the Desert
Jesus had been starved and isolated for forty days. I thought that I could finally get him on the side of evil. I tried to use his hunger to make him use God’s power for a completely selfish reason: to feed himself by making bread out of rocks. I don’t see how one could resist food after not eating for so long. Its not like doing one selfish thing would kill the guy. I mean, if you’re hungry, you eat. It’s as simple as that. When I went on to try to get him to jump off the parapet and have angels save him to prove he is the Son of God, he held back once more. What an idiot! If he doesn’t show people his power, people will never follow him. People follow power, not stupid things like morals and truth. After Jesus refused to bow down to me to gain power over the whole world, I was sure that this man was a fraud. What kind of leader wouldn’t do anything to gain power that would bring pride and fear into his followers? Once he started screaming about some stupid belief, I left the crazy dude.
A Disciple on The Sermon on the Mount
Don’t get me wrong, I think that Jesus is great and he talks about awesome things like peace and forgiveness. However, I just finished listening to Him preaching about many strange things. I know that Jesus is usually preaching about things like acceptance, love, and praying, but I am having a hard time understanding exactly what He is talking about sometimes. I mean, I just heard Him talk about things like salt on the earth and lamps being hidden under bushel baskets. Later, Peter said that He was speaking of God’s Kingdom, but I don’t understand how I was supposed to get that message from His stories. Another thing that frightens me is that He seemed to have just tried to replace the Law that we have lived on for centuries. Jesus gave us a new list of certain laws to follow instead of the Commandments and He told us exactly how we are supposed to pray. He even went on to alter the way we believe that things like divorce, oaths, and retaliation should happen. I’m not saying that I don’t think that Jesus’ message isn’t one to be ignored, but sometimes, I feel like He is either wise beyond His years or completely crazy.
A Mother on the Feeding of Five Thousand
My children and I followed the crowd out where Jesus was today. Curiosity brought us out to Him, but hearing the amazing messages, lessons, and stories was what really kept us out there listening to Him for so long. In fact, before we knew it, the sky was becoming darker and we realized that we had been there for most of the day. The bad this was, we were a very long way from home and we didn’t have anything to eat after not eating since morning. A murmur of hunger was taking over the very large crowd out to listen to the Messiah. I almost couldn’t bear the sound of my children crying out in hunger. However, some of Jesus’ disciples provided two fish and five loves of bread. Sure, that may no seem like much food to feed a whole crowd of people, but Jesus made the food was distributed among everyone so that we all ate our fill. As if that wasn’t amazing enough, twelve baskets of food were left over afterwards. I cannot thank Jesus enough for feeding my children and me. Before today, I had just heard stories about Jesus and was a little skeptical of Him. However, after today, I know that he is the Messiah He claims to be.
Peter on the Transfiguration
Today, I experienced one of the most frightening and awe inspiring events in my life. I did not expect Jesus to do anything but preach to James, John, and me when we got to the top of the mountain, but I guess that I should never doubt that Jesus is always full of surprises. Suddenly, I found myself looking at Jesus’ face shining like the sun and His clothes gleaming and white like light. Then, two figures appeared at Jesus’ side and I strangely recognized them as Moses as Elijah. I was totally spooked by the things that were happening, but I felt like I had to say something so I said that I would make three tents for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. However, now I don’t really think that setting up tents was that big of a deal. It wasn’t the smartest thing to say. Amazingly, right after I spoke clouds covered the sky and the voice of God said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him.” After this I was overcome with so many mixed emotions that I just fell on the ground and praised God. When I looked up, I was staring at Jesus by himself looking as he had before the miracle. I will never forget this experience and I am definitely going to intently listen to all Jesus has to say from now on. Jesus is the Son of God!!
Judas on the Last Supper
I cannot believe what is happening right now. My palms are sweating and my breath is running short as I am presently on my way to meet up with Caiaphas and his soldiers. Just minutes ago, I was sitting around a table with Jesus and my fellow apostles about to celebrate Passover with the Seder meal. However, before we started eating, Jesus said He knew that one of us would betray Him and I became very nervous. Jesus said some strange blessing over the bread and wine saying something crazy like how it was His own body and blood. I got done with the meal as fast as I could and made my way out. So here I am now. I know it looks bad, with me going behind Jesus’ back and all, but I have a really good explanation. Lately, Jesus’ messages seem to be saying that He is the Son of God and the Messiah we have been waiting for. But come on, I am one of Jesus’ closest friends and I know that He isn’t some divine being. He is blaspheming and it just doesn’t seem right. I can’t think of any other ways to deal with this. But now I know that this is the right thing to do...at least I think it is. Now I must be off to Gethsemane.
Mary on the Death of Jesus
What is happening? My son is hanging up on the cross and there are hoards of people cursing and ridiculing Him. How could His life end like this? Where are all of those who once so faithfully followed Him? They must be afraid and hiding away because they don’t want to die because they believed my Son was God’s son. I am trying to understand how they must feel but I can’t stop thinking about how much my son must be suffering. Oh Lord, please help me understand why this is happening. I just can’t bear to look into his hurting, doubting eyes. Could this be the end? Please, Lord, give me the courage to not only remain strong and carry my own burdens, but also have the courage to help bear my Son’s burdens. What happened to people calling Jesus “king?” I guess that times like that are over. But please don’t let this be the end for Him. It can’t be the end. There are too many people here that love Him for Him to die. Please, don’t let this be the end...
Kevin on the Resurrection
As we all know, the story of Jesus doesn’t end on the cross, and He is brought back to life three days after His death and goes on to send out His disciples to preach His Word to the world. The reason that I myself can provide a first hand account of the Resurrection is because I still witness it in our world today. I’m not saying that Jesus is constantly dying and being risen in His physical form. Rather, I am a witness to the effect the Resurrection continues to have in our world today. Every time that sin is conquered by faith and love, Jesus Resurrection is playing out in our lives. Just by doing good deeds and by setting good examples of Christian values I can be a witness to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Today, I am able to bring the belief of Jesus’ Resurrection into my heart and others’ as well because Jesus took away all our sin through His passion, death, and Resurrection and still lives wherever goodness prevails.
Email me at:
KTkick10@aim.com
KTkick10@aim.com