They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”
This verse which shows how people found it difficult to believe in Jesus reminds me a little of a certain circumstance in my life. In this verse, the people are flabbergasted by Jesus’s claims that He is the bread of life because they know His father is Joseph the carpenter. They are unable to understand why He insists on calling Himself the Son of God when they see Him as the sin of Joseph, their kinsman, neighbour, friend, acquaintance and so on.
In my personal experience as a wedding dress designer, I used to be simply shocked when close friends or family refused to patronise our business; quoting various and sometimes seemingly spurious and elaborate excuses. It used to hurt so badly and once I tearfully said to my husband “if your own people don’t trust you, what message are they giving others”.
This scripture and Jesus’s response to the disbelief and the disregard of His own people really helps me to put things in perspective. It’s not that they have anything against me or my business. It’s more that, because I have a background which may have been similar to theirs and which they deem as unremarkable, they find it hard to believe that an unremarkable me is able to design these wedding dresses and they are afraid to trust me with the most important dress of their lives. They would rather go to someone they know nothing about and who they can judge on current status.
While this continues to hurt whenever it happens, I do continue to respond in the same way Jesus did which is to say “It doesn’t matter if you don’t believe in me, it doesn’t change the truth of who I am”. The truth is I am who God says I am and my talents come from him and not from my own intelligence or wisdom. So in all honesty, whether or not my design skills are remarkable depends on how remarkable God and I’m sure we all know the answer to that great puzzle.
Whenever, our clients exclaim on how amazing the service is or beautiful the dresses are, I count myself lucky and blessed that God is really working through me in that way and bride’s are benefiting from this everyday.
Have you ever been in a situation where people you love or know did not act like they believed in you? Tell me about your experience too.
God bless you!
Lots of love,
Omo
Christian Mumpreneur 