“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” (Matthew 11:29). In many other translations of this verse, the word “of” in the phrase “learn of me” is more properly translated as “from.” Christ is not simply inviting us to study up and learn about Him, but to come to Him personally and learn from Him directly. That is why He gives us this reassurance - “I am meek and lowly in heart.” Can you even imagine Christ tutoring you and berating and belittling you and calling you names when you get things wrong or don't understand things right away? I don't think so. The beautiful thing about learning from Christ is there are no stupid questions. Christ doesn't lose His patience when we get stuck in the same spot over and over again. Every time we fall, Christ is there to scoop us back up and is much more likely to point out how much farther we were able to walk before falling this time than He is to remark sharply that He got this right on the first try and can't understand why we're such slow learners. Christ always teaching us with meekness and lowliness of heart invites us to have meekness and lowliness of heart as well as we learn from Him. If He always has compassion and patience and understanding with us, then maybe we will learn to also have compassion and patience and understanding, not only with our own slow and halting progress, but also with everyone else as they too are on their learning journeys. When Christ promises us that we will find rest, part of the rest that we can enjoy is taking a break from trying to pretend like we have everything figured out. At least with Christ, none of us have to feel like imposters. He already knows all of our deepest flaws and our most embarrassing weaknesses and He doesn't care. He still wants to teach us anyway. I hope we all choose to learn from Jesus Christ and follow His example and become almost as meek and lowly in heart as He is.
