Food for Thought

When is the last time you borrowed something from a friend or family member? When you think of borrowing something from someone, what emotions or thoughts tend to come to mind? I know for me it's usually hesitation or sometimes fear of asking mainly because it makes me feel that I am not capable or am lacking something.

I ran across this quote by Leighton Ford yesterday that made be think about the concept of borrowing. Here's what he has to say about Jesus' perspective of borrowing.

The most spectacular cross-cultural leadership in the history of humanity took place when the Son of God became a first-century Galilean Jew. In that identification he renounced the status and the rights that he enjoyed as God’s Son. Among them, Jesus gave up any right to independence; he was born in a borrowed manger, preached from a borrowed boat, entered Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey, ate the Last Supper in a borrowed upper room, died on a borrowed cross and was buried in a borrowed tomb. In renouncing entitlement he exposed himself to temptation, sorrow, limitation and pain, and yet, “although Jesus identified himself completely with us, he did not lose his own identity. He remained himself.” And so his incarnation taught “identification without loss of identity.” (Transforming Leadership, 32-33)

It's amazing how much Jesus borrowed...I wonder if he actually ever owned/bought anything while he was here.