Gotta get closer....

I was just talking with someone about what I will call the "Oprah phenomenon". Today on her show she was down in Houston TX where she was handing over the keys to a bunch of new homes that with her help and lots of other people's help from across the nation had built. Story after story of what these families had been through was traumatic to hear, they all had triumphed over hardship and now faced a new start in their brand-new homes. At the end of her show, Oprah gave away 15 more houses to unexpecting audience members who had been on site just watching her show. They were all victims of hurricane Katrina, and needless to say were thrilled. I was telling one of my residents about it and she said "Well, I'm surprised the people didn't suspect it, Oprah is always doing things like that". And we went on to joke about how if you hung around Oprah enough you would be bound to get something, she just always seems to be up to something and giving things away.
I was instantly reminded of the woman who in Mark 5, is just desperate to touch Jesus, to be around him, in hope that he would affect her life.

"A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a women who had be subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet insisted on getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak because she thought if I could just touch his clothes I will be healed." - Mark 5:25-27

I was thinking, would have the same desperation to touch Jesus as I would Oprah? Would hang around Jesus with the same intent? Sure Oprah may be able to get me a new car, a new house, even the year's best gadget, but can she give eternal life? We know the answer to the question, but somehow in the managled media and ideas of the world, we sometimes forget. I just pray that we would have the same desire to hang around and be by Jesus, to be near to God just to know that he is present and he is near, and he desires to give us the pleasure of our heart. And unlike human love and human gifts, his love will never fail or let us down. In the meantime, I still will be watching Oprah, but admiring the way she is God to the people of New Orleans, but not making her a god in her own.