Needles Eye Tunnel--Am I Poor Enough in Spirit?

  A few weeks ago I wanted to tell about Needles Eye Tunnel on our way from Rapid City to Custer. Only one vehicle at a time could squeeze through here. Crystal told us that when she drove a vanload of Amish last year for their vacation trip to the Black Hills, she had to fold in the side mirrors of the van to get through this tunnel. We had to wait for one motorcycle or car after another, and then when we found a gap in oncoming traffic, we still ventured only very cautiously through this tunnel, while another vehicle waited on the other side.

Needle's eyes are super small and narrow, so narrow that I can hardly successfully thread a needle anymore. But it was a needle's eye that Jesus referred to when He talked about rich men making it to heaven--saying that it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to make it into the kingdom of heaven. 

Now I have heard that this reference was likely about a gate often referred to as the "eye of a needle" where camels would enter Jerusalem. It was a gate so low that camels had to be unloaded before they could squeeze through, and commentators speculate that Jesus was meaning that rich people have to unload their dependence on their riches in order to trust fully in God. Another train of thought is that Jesus was actually meaning that it was, in fact, impossible for a rich man to enter heaven, while following that statement up with the profound truth that "with man this is impossible; but with God, all things are possible."

Am I poor enough to make it to heaven? What side mirrors need to be folded in to make it through the Needle's Eye of the gate to heaven?

I was just thinking this morning of some people I know who recently were put into a high position in a situation. I thought about how classy and good-looking those people were, how their appearance, dress, actions and attitudes exuded dignity, class, grace. And they got the vote. 

Instinctively people seem to recognize these things in others--and vote for it. We recognize when others "got the goods." But is that what gets us into heaven? What if I have all that--even right doctrine--but don't have love? What if I have all my t's crossed and my i's dotted, but am not walking in charity and mercy to my neighbor?

Am I carrying baggage of self-righteousness and spiritual pride? Am I turning more to my money, possessions, hobbies, vacations, relationships, church, or even work for satisfaction than to the Lord? How rich am I? Am I poor enough, Lord, to value only You and eternal issues?

Or does my head become big and my spirit bloated while I look down my nose at others--the classless, less "spiritual," sinful, and needy?

O Jesus, You Who became poor that we might become rich in You, help us to lean wholly on You today, stewarding all You give us, waiting on others to go through the tunnel before us, and living in humility and grace, choosing obedience to You and Your Word over our pet loves.

Is there something today that You are asking me to "sell and give"?

https://www.fh.org/blog/what-is-the-meaning-of-a-camel-going-through-the-eye-of-a-needle/