The Pillow

I had to buy new pillows.
Wouldn’t it be nice if pillows could stay plump and fluffy?
Over time, they tend to get flat and uncomfortable.

Pillows are a personal thing.
Children going to camp bring their own sleeping bag and pillow.
Travel pillows attached to suitcases, help those on a journey rest their weary head.

Down-filled pillows explode if used for pillow fights.
The room is filled with a shower of goose feathers that will inevitably be cleaned up later.
People with allergies have foam pillows that will not adversely affect them as they sleep.

Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep…Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. He called that place Bethel…
(Genesis 28: 10,11,18,19)

Not exactly the kind of pillow I would choose for my head.
A stone…a stone that became a pillar…a standing stone of remembrance.
Bethel literally means “house of God”.
My old pillows get thrown away.
Jacob’s pillow became a standing stone, which pointed people to God.

One other time, in God’s Word, we are told of a pillow.
This pillow is precious to me.

That day when evening came, He said to His disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took Him along, just as He was, in their boat. There were other boats with them. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was asleep in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to His disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey Him!” (Mark 4:35-41)

Jesus, the Son of God, rebuked the demonic storm.
The disciples were afraid.
Who is this man that commands the wind and the waves to be quiet and still?
Who is this man?

Obviously, calming the demonic storm is important.
It declared Jesus’ divinity.
Jesus is fully God and fully man.

Personally, I find something even more tender about this story.
What touches my heart is that Jesus was asleep on a pillow!
The Son of God needed to sleep!

Jesus was tired, just like any of us get tired at the end of a busy day.
Jesus’ sleep was disturbed, not for a drink of water, or a bad dream, but for a storm.
A demonic storm that could have taken the lives of the disciples had Jesus not intervened.

Jesus was tired!
That simple example of His humanity touches my heart.
In this one story, we see Jesus’ humanity and Jesus’ divinity.
Side by side.

That pillow could have been a standing stone.
That pillow could have had oil poured on it to commemorate the event.
That pillow could have easily been called “House of God”.

But that pillow remains one word in the account.
That pillow is a quiet testimony.
That pillow whispers that Jesus really is the God-man, the Savior-servant.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin.
(Hebrews 4:15)

Jesus was just like us – but without sin.
Everything we experience, He experienced so He would know what it was like to be us.
If you are lonely, tired, hungry, cold, sad, weary, or angry, you are in good company.
Jesus experienced all of our human emotions, all of our human needs.

On that pillow rested the head of the Son of God.
The pillow whispered His humanity for those who have ears to hear.
His rebuke of the wind and the waves loudly declared His Divinity.

Humanity and Divinity met on a pillow.