Skip to main content

Anything Else In All Creation

             For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.   (Romans 8:38-39)

          Oh, I have to chuckle. Yesterday, I spent several hours trying to come up with something to write about these verses, and ended up switching to Colossians 3:1-2. Today, these verses were my Bible platform’s verse-of-the-day. You think God might want me to look at them?

          But I really did need yesterday’s lesson first. If you’re like me, the instant you focus on verses like today’s your mind either sticks its fingers in its ears and says “Na, na, na, na, hmm, na, na. I can’t hear you,” “Liar,” or something similar. Anything that means you don’t have to think about any love that makes you uncomfortable because it’s out of your control. My reaction to love is similar to my reaction to the idea of placing my heart in God’s care. I’m not cringing at that idea at the moment.

          Why would anyone have a negative reaction to love? Yesterday, I wrote about being klutz who has to put things on a counter (or shelf) two or three times before they stay, and about the possibly apocryphal cat that knocks things off of shelves. The cat has marvelous aim. Things it knocks off the shelf don’t land on the floor, the don’t even land in a clean toilet. They land in a bucket full of the worst possible combinations of sewage. And, shifting the analogy a little – we are among the things it knocks into the bucket.

          When we are covered with mud, blood, sewage, dirt, sweat, or paint, we tend to be reluctant to touch someone, let alone hug them. Love? Yeah, nice, but “Don’t touch!” Maintain that separation that today’s verses reject. And the separation we try to maintain isn’t for our benefit. We claim it’s for the benefit of God. We’re already a mess. We don’t want His robes to be covered with this stuff.

          And that takes me back to my friend who called the characters in Fellowship of the Ring “noble.” They were covered with road dust, grime, and filth. They volunteered to get covered with road dust and grime for the benefit of others. God was willing to be filthy so that we could be clean and safe. It’s already done. I can’t protect God from it because He’s already removed it. But somehow, I have a hard time keeping that on my “shelf.”

          And because it doesn’t come easily, I need to consciously look for it and put it back on the shelf.

           

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Shepherd!

                 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep . (John 10:14) God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Genesis 3:14) The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths     for his name’s sake. Even though I walk     through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil,     for you are with me; your rod and your staff,     they comfort me. (Psalm 23:1-4) For the Jews, it was politically incorrect to make claims about yourself as a teacher (or possibly as anything else.) Teachers were expected to take pride in the...
Post a Comment
Read more