Skip to main content

Sigh As The Chains Come Off


I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.  For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from tis bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. (Romans 8:12-21) 
          Do people disappoint you? Have you considered that it might be a good thing? I know how I feel when I meet someone who is doing better in life than I am (from my perspective.) “Good for them, but what’s wrong with me?” Can you imagine being around perfect people? All your little flaws glaring, and sure they forgive them and they love you anyway (otherwise they wouldn’t be perfect) but you notice. The other day I had a conversation about Jesus when He walked the earth. He didn’t look like anything special, just your average Jewish carpenter. I don’t think people heard the Twilight Zone music warning them that He was something special. That’s part of why the Pharisees were upset with him. They were disappointed, and I think the disappointment went beyond the fact that He didn’t play the game by their rules. One day He climbed a mountain with some friends, and they got the “Twilight Zone” treatment. They saw Him transfigured.
          Someday, we’ll be transfigured, too. I won’t say we’ll be as impressive as Jesus was, but maybe… because maybe the transfiguration wasn’t as glorious as He can be (and is.) Can you imagine seeing the everlasting splendors and immortal horrors walking toward you on the street? Imagine the world on a much grander scale. It’s hard, but according to today’s passage, creation got dumbed down for our sakes. It got tamed. Just as we are waiting for the day when we won’t disappoint, nature is waiting for the day when it is set free.
          I’m not sure what that will mean. It could mean that the lion we see today is a puny thing. It might have been made puny so that lions didn’t kill all the people. It could also mean that the nobility that we seem to connect with the lion will be more than the shadow it is. What if we’ll stand in a category eight hurricane and laugh at the autumnal showers? I don’t know. It’s speculation, but I suspect that it’s a good the that things are in bondage now.  
         In The Great Divorce, C. S. Lewis shares another possibility. Have you ever cut yourself on grass? Imagine if grass were hard enough that it didn’t bend under your weight, and sharp enough that it sliced your feet to ribbons. Imagine apples that weigh so much that you can’t carry them. Imagine sunlight that that hurt your eyes, burned your skin, and had weight. Imagine if all that you see around you were real, and you were a ghost, unable to touch any of it. Someday, we’ll be given a world that isn’t a shadow of itself any more because we won’t be shadows of ourselves. Someday, we and all creation will sigh as the chains come off.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Think About These Things

                 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) This passage is a major challenge for me. Like everyone else, I struggle to keep my thoughts from wandering off into the weeds, then wondering what possible benefits those weeds might have… Sigh. But as a writer, I have to delve at least a little into the ignoble, wrong, impure, unlovely, and debased. After all, there’s no story if everything’s just as it should be and everyone’s happy. As Christians, there are times when we need to deal with all the negatives, but that makes it even more important that we practice turning our minds by force of attention to what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. It’s just too easy to get stuck in a swamp. With my...
1 comment
Read more

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more