Do you believe that Jesus loves you completely, individually, as if you are the only person alive? I think most Christians believe Jesus loves them but individually I’m not sure of. If you think about it how could he love each of us individually? Does he keep track of each of us? The answer to that is yes and Jesus proved it to me. I have always felt close to him but I wasn’t sure he kept track of everything that happened to me. After my conversion I began to have what Jesus called The Memories. It was as if I was transported back in time to live with him when he walked the Earth. The first time it happened I had just pulled into a parking spot in a mall. I put the car in park and suddenly it began. I was standing on a platform looking at a crowd a little below me. It was mainly men and I could see their faces, the clothes they were wearing, the dust in the air and sense the restlessness they were feeling. I not only saw all of this but I felt as if I was there experiencing it all. Somehow I knew that I was standing on the platform that Pilate would make his decision about Jesus, whether he would live or die. Then suddenly it was over. The Memories have come and gone ever since then, especially during Lent and especially Holy Week and Jesus’ passion. Being a biblical archaeologist, I knew that Jesus’ crucifixion was much more bloody, painful and torturous than we can imagine and far worse than any movie or show can depict.
One time in the Memories, as I stood at the foot of his cross, he uttered his last words “Father it is finished. Into your hands I commend my spirit.” (Luke 23:46) As he drew his last breath, the face of every human being that ever was, is, or will be passed before him and he whispered, “I love you.” He was in excruciating pain, dying, but he wanted to see the faces of each of us individually and to whisper to each of us individually that he loved us. “No greater love has anyone than to lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) That is the love of our God for us. Never were words more true than the lyrics from the song ‘Me on Your Mind’ by Anne Wilson and Matthew West “You paid the price, You took the cross, You gave Your life and You did it all with me on Your mind.”
