My husband suffered a terrible blow a few weeks ago. After working for a company for almost 32 years, his position was suddenly eliminated. His boss, his boss’s boss, and an HR person dropped this bombshell on him in an impromptu meeting, assuring him it was not performance related. The company gave my shocked husband a mere handful of weeks to find another job within the company, or he would be let go permanently.

Jon’s job had been an excellent fit for him. He loved it. He was good at it: global something or other. The job made his heart sing in a way that he felt like he got to go to Disneyland every day. And he was doing what men love to do: making a big difference and solving problems.

Seventeen job applications, seventeen different cover letters, and several interviews later, he was coming down to the wire when he would be terminated from the company. He told me, “I would scrub toilets to maintain our health insurance and our retirement!”

Jesus knows something about scrubbing toilets. “From a throne of endless glory to a cradle in the dirt,” says the song “King of Kings” by Hillsong. 
Marvel afresh over this with me: Jesus willingly made Himself nothing.
Even though Jesus was entirely God, He did not count equality with God as a thing to be grasped but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
Further, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death on a cross. (Philippians 2:5-8)

 Jesus knows all about being brought low. He knows all about suffering. He knows all too well what it feels like to be the object of wrath by family when you’ve done nothing wrong.

Through our suffering and in our own being brought low, it is indeed a precious gift of God for us to identify in the smallest of measures with our suffering servant, the Lord Jesus Christ.

I married a committed provider who, for a season, will be a figurative scrubber of toilets. His heart is Jesus-like.

(picture credit: Unsplash, Giorgio Trovato)