"WHAT are you reading, my boy?" said a mother to her small son, as she saw him bending over his Bible.
“I am not reading, mother," he answered, "I am looking at Jesus raising up Lazarus." How pleased the mother must have been to see that her boy noticed and meditated on the very movements and words of Jesus, not only what He said and what He did, but how He said and did things.
We all, young and old, are sometimes inclined to read through accounts of the doings of the Lord Jesus among men, without stopping to meditate on each word, and on each movement of His gracious acts.
Mary heard about this boy, and it made her wish to look too, so she began to read a little, and then to put down her Bible and look. One day she looked with the eyes of her mind right back to the wilderness and saw the tabernacle which Moses had set up, and the cloud which rested on it, as light by night and a shadow from the heat during the day. She looked again; the cloud was moving forward. She saw the Levites engaged in taking down and packing up the different parts of the tabernacle, as Moses had commanded them, and then moving forward, following the leading of the cloud.
But there was one piece of the furniture of the tabernacle which she noticed particularly. It had a different covering from the other pieces. It was carried by staves by the Kohathites and had a covering of blue. What was it? she asked herself.
Mary looked into her Bible to find out, and this was what she read: "And when the camp setteth forward, Aaron shall come, and his sons, and they shall take down the covering veil, and cover the ark of testimony with it: and shall put thereon the covering of badgers' skins, and shall spread over it a cloth wholly of blue, and shall put in the staves thereof." (Num. 4:5, 65And when the camp setteth forward, Aaron shall come, and his sons, and they shall take down the covering vail, and cover the ark of testimony with it: 6And shall put thereon the covering of badgers' skins, and shall spread over it a cloth wholly of blue, and shall put in the staves thereof. (Numbers 4:5‑6).) What was this then? Why, surely, the ark of testimony which Moses had made of shittim wood and covered inside and outside with gold, and in which he had put three wonderful things, the law written on the tables of stone, Aaron's rod that budded, and the pot of manna.
Mary was still looking, when in her thoughts, she heard Moses say, as the ark moved forward: "Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee." (Num. 10:3535And it came to pass, when the ark set forward, that Moses said, Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee. (Numbers 10:35).)
Why, "Mary asked herself;" was the ark covered with blue? "And then she noticed something else of the same color, for she saw a man standing by with a fringe of blue on his garment." More blue," she said again," and why blue, I wonder!”
“Blue is the color of the sky," she said to herself; "so I suppose the fringe of blue on the man's garment, like the covering of the ark of the testimony, must be to remind the people that they were not like the nations around them, who were of the earth, earthy, but God's special people, going from the land of cruel bondage, Egypt, to the land flowing with milk and honey, to Canaan.”
Then Mary looked again. Not this time into the wilderness at the ark of the testimony, but at that holy Person, who was its great anti-type. With the eyes of her mind, she saw Jesus walking, and she looked upon Him as He walked. He was the true ark of the testimony, and He carried God's law in His heart. He too was covered with blue, for He was the Man out of heaven.
John the Baptist saw Jesus coming to him, and his whole soul was filled with reverence and joy as he looked on Jesus, and called others to do the same, saying, "Behold the Lamb of God.”
The Apostle John was one who looked right into heaven and saw Jesus there. John the Baptist saw Him as a lowly Man walking on the earth, but the apostle saw Him in heaven in a very different character. He saw Jesus as Judge, and as King of kings and Lord of lords. It is well to notice how many times we are told in the Book of the Revelation that John looked and saw and heard.
The Lord Jesus would have every boy and girl who reads this to do the same, looking on Jesus as he walked here, and looking on Him in the glory, where He now is. We can all pray that we may do so, and in this way become more like Him, before we reach Him where He is.
Supreme in glory, past His pain,
Ascended up on high,
He calls His own to wear again
The color of the sky.