John 20:17a
Jesus said to Mary of Magdala, "Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father."
There's been a lot of debate over what Jesus meant when he told Mary Magdalene, "Stop holding on to me," but what makes the most sense to me is that Jesus had places to go and people (GOD!) to see and if Mary was not willing to let go of the Jesus she had known up until that point, He couldn't move forward, at least not in her heart. Similarly, at the Transfiguration, Peter offers to build a Holy Tent for Jesus, Elijah and Moses so to capture and remain in that moment, but God wouldn't allow it.
Have you boxed Jesus up? Are you holding on to the way you see Him so tightly that you can't grab on to anything else? Have you taken an experience you've had with Him and created a sort of Jesus-tunnel-vision that might be keeping you from seeing Him in a new way? If your experience with Christ came from a time of suffering, don't think that that is the only way you will experience that presence again. Maybe it was a profound moment on a retreat that taught you who Christ is. Hey, Jesus can give you that retreat high with the right song in a 15-minute car ride to work. Or do you fall into the trap of thinking that in order to BE Christ to someone, you have to do something you've done in the past that has seemed to be effective? Let go of the preconceived notions and the expectations. When we let go and allow Christ to lead us where and how He wants to go, we start allowing HIS plan to take affect instead of our own and His is way better.
