Today I picked up walnuts. Not just a bucket or two but five wheelbarrows full. We have our share of walnut trees which is quite nice considering it gives us full grown trees, pretty leaves in the summer and filtered shade. They also provide walnuts which would be great if I wanted to learn the process of drying, storing and using them. But I don’t. So they are a nuisance to me.

While I raked, gathered and moved walnuts from my driveway to the woods, I heard them continue to plop all around me, in the areas I just cleaned. It was as if they mocked me, challenging me to keep up with them. Maybe it was just me, but I wondered if the trees were taunting me to do more and do it faster. I didn’t succumb to the invitation.

While I worked, listening to the walnuts fall, I considered something I read yesterday. I thought about Jesus on the cross and how the people taunted him. Challenging him to do more and do it faster.

²⁹The people passing by shouted abuse, shaking their heads in mockery. “Ha! Look at you now!” they yelled at him. “You said you were going to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days. ³⁰Well then, save yourself and come down from the cross!”³¹The leading priests and teachers of religious law also mocked Jesus. “He saved others,” they scoffed, “but he can’t save himself! ³²Let this Messiah, this King of Israel, come down from the cross so we can see it and believe him!” Even the men who were crucified with Jesus ridiculed him.

Mark 15:29-32

The onlookers wanted Jesus to do more and he could have. He could have called a legion of angels or fire from heaven or rained sulphur on their heads. That would have been showy. But it wouldn’t have accomplished his purpose — salvation of humanity.

He chose to do less so in the end he could do more. He could save himself or he could save the whole world. I’m glad he chose to do less because the more includes me!

Maybe you are waiting for Him to do more, wishing he would make a show of it. Is it possible by doing less He IS doing more?

It’s a thought!