For those of you at Ruach on June 28, you must have noticed how at ease Hal Slifer, the host of Chagigah Radio, his wife, and our other guests were with our Ruach community. Our Ruachites were not only welcoming, but also were able to fully engage in Hal’s presentation and one-on-one be in a comfortable relationship with him to further discuss the fascinating topic he presented.

Such intimacy, comfort with another, typically grows over time, or can be accelerated by experiencing the character of the other. It is also not to be taken for granted, but rather, fostered with kindness. Hal and our other guests felt loved by our community. Our openness and sincerity fostered their trust of us.

As a result of recent surgery I’ve had to wear a rather large gauze pad taped on the right side of my nose and face. Needless to say, it’s the first thing anyone casually walking by me has noticed for the past two weeks. At the mall recently one of those sales people who jumps out at you to come try their product asked, “What happened?” It was so disingenuous, for I knew she really didn’t care, but rather just wanted to engage me in a personal conversation and then try to sell me her product.

Not only was it off-putting and manipulative, it made me feel worse about my appearance when actually I hadn’t even been thinking about it. I was just on a nice mall walk with my sister trying to forget about my face and beauty products at the moment. Leave it to my angel sister to boldly stride over there after the next loop around to teach the sales people there a thing or two about their abuse of the concept of really caring about another!

To the contrary, this week I was shopping at a grocery story and a perhaps on the spectrum employee asked me the same question, “What happened?” As I looked into his eyes, there was such sincerity. Even though we had just met, I could tell he really cared, about me. I told him, to which he replied, “May God bless you and heal you.” That is true caring.

Getting to know another intimately takes time. It is a precious journey, one which grows us in so many ways. We make our inevitable mistakes, hopefully more often picking the right people with whom we want a deeper relationship, but in every misstep we get closer to being able to recognize those whom we can trust and would like to know better. Unfortunately, our missteps or even misunderstandings often impede our ability to trust someone whom we really should love and trust. . .

This week’s Bible Study with my Florida family and friends (remotely attended by me of course) brought together all of the previous days’ steps on my journey. As we studied the day’s passages someone in the group said Jesus’ attitude toward the Pharisees was like a rebellion. Whereas His teachings as a 12 year old were amazing to them, His teachings later were threatening to the fragile relationship the Pharisee leadership had forged with the Roman government.

Rebellion! It was as if a light bulb went on in my head! The conversation led to a discussion of the late ‘60s, early’70s, a time of protests and change, rebellion. It was a time of young people seeking love and altered states through the hippie movement, then the Jesus movement. 1967 was the year of the Six-Day War in Israel where God’s miracles were abundant.

Just as Yeshua was the miraculous and unique leader of rebellion within His faith, the group became able to see the Jesus movement of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s as an encounter with the miraculous during more recent times of seeking and rebellion. They were able to see these “recent” times as similar to the days of Yeshua, to see Him and His early followers as a miraculous movement for change.

The group learned that the late ‘60s and early ‘70s was also the beginning of the modern Messianic Jewish Movement. I shared how thousands of Jewish people, young people seeking, came to know that Yeshua is the Messiah at that time and how this nucleus formed the beginning of the modern Messianic Jewish movement, now with thriving synagogues worldwide for us to attend as Jews.

The especially amazed Jewish attendees were able to see the actions of Yeshua and His followers as relatable to a time frame with which they were very familiar, to see their activities as acts of rebellion that made sense for the times. They became able to see Messianic Judaism, and Yeshua, with new eyes, ones no longer seeing Him through filters of misunderstanding and mistrust, but don’t stop there. . .

The excitement built as the conversation then turned to the Christians in our group for them to share the major changes in their faiths during this same time period – the charismatic movement which spread to Lutherans, Presbyterians, non-denominational Protestants, Catholics, and the born again Christians as well. Clearly the late ‘60s and early ‘70s were a time of high spiritual seeking and growth, a time where the deepening of our relationship with God was intensifying, a time when Yeshua’s Presence was once again intimately interacting with mankind  . . .

Whether it’s a new friend, like Hal, or a random stranger, like the grocery store employee, or Yeshua, Himself, when we seek, when we trust wisely, we will find those who we want to know better. How much moreso do we want to lean more deeply into our relationship with Yeshua who clearly is reaching out to us as well, at some times more obviously, but always, always there wanting more of us just as we who know Him want more of Him.

As all of these “unrelated” experiences and thoughts were swirling in my head, as I felt Yeshua’s Presence so closely orchestrating these inspired interactions, so too,  “randomly” did the lyrics of this famous song “Getting to Know You”, to which I’ll add the “You” is Yeshua, come to mind:

“ . . .

Getting to know You,

Getting to know all about You

When I am with You

Getting to know what to say

Haven’t You noticed

Suddenly I’m bright and breezy?

Because of all the beautiful and new

Things I’m learning about You

Day by day.”

What a blessed journey to more deeply trust and know Yeshua, to keep building our relationship with Him, day by day.

Shabbat shalom.

Diane