Hope for heaven

Psalm 73: 25   Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee.

What does heaven hold other than the presence of our Lord? Does promise of any of the rivers and streets of gold or eternal absence of pain, tears and sorrow hold any attraction in the absence of our Father? Is not all of it so many baubles and bubbles without the presence of our Saviour? We strive  and groan for the eternal communion of His presence. All else is secondary. 

The fullness of time...

THE FULLNESS OF TIME

Now Elisabeth's full time came that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son (Luke 1:57)

The fullness of time is often used in the King James version of the Bible. The version is rarely read because of its quaint English, yet was one of the early commissioned works of compilation that has lasted for centuries.

It is very easy to imagine a baby being born in the “fullness of time”. In fact it is not desirable that a baby be born before the fullness of time, or after the period specified for it. 

Most things in the world work on this celestial clock, whose ticking is often inaudible to harried ears and drowned by the strident calls of our busy schedules. We desire faster, quicker, further, and it all has to happen at the touch of a button or a swish of a screen.

Yet there is a fullness of time that makes the sun rise on schedule, and the rivers run in spring. Leaves fall in autumn, and buds respond to birds in spring from skeletal branches that watch over winter.

How deep is that understanding of that clock within us, when all of nature follows its baton?

We get impatient with others, with ourselves, and with the world, and can often despair of people who don’t respond or change, circumstances that don’t shift, or situations that seem stuck in a quagmire. Are we forgetting that our celestial conductor still holds the baton over all these things? And do we remind ourselves that there might be in that situation, for that person, or for that circumstance, a fullness of time that is yet to be?

If we are able to see that, we might join the universal choir in singing in tune, rather than raising a discordant voice that grates against the bars of music that dictate our days.

Well did the wisest man in all the world write … “He makes all things beautiful in His time.”

Wanting to know

HOW CAN WE UNDERSTAND?

Life is a slow unveiling. A gradual awakening into the wonders of our world. As a child gradually grows into the understanding of his environment. Tentative forays leaving imprints of experience on his being. These imprints mould him as he bases his perception of life and those around him from what is within him. He grows.

In the beginning was the word. The word was with God and the word was God. All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. Life was in Him, and that life was the light of men. (Taken from John 1)

How do our eyes perceive what God is doing within us? “The words I have spoken to you, they are spirit and life (John 6:63)”, said Jesus. “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free (John 8:32)”, He said. How do we listen and having listened hear? How do we understand?

Jesus spoke in parables. Stories, allegories, illustrations. He ended quite a few of them with the injuction that “those who have ears should hear”. We often appreciate their meaning and content, but do we hear?  He also explained why he  used this method of instruction. “Therefore speak I to them in parables,” He said, “because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.” Was the purpose of the parable to hide the meaning? How can it be unveiled? 

What is the secret to this understanding?

Jesus said it lies in our heart. He cried out against that generation, quoting Isaiah, saying their heart has grown callous. The hearts of the people of Israel had also grown, but it had grown calloused. The inevitable consequence is a darkening of their understanding, and a blinding of their mind. (Matthew 13: 13-15)

The first step to learning is a desire to learn. A wanting to know. No amount of tutelage can ever instill that hunger into a soul. Do we want to know our God? “If we hunger and thirst”, He said, “we will be filled”. If we don’t have that hunger or thirst, we will become like those in the market place whose only emission is a complaint against what is, for what others are not. They are like unto children that sit in the marketplace, and call one to another; who say, We piped unto you, and ye did not dance; we wailed, and ye did not weep. (Luke 7:32)

“Love God”, Jesus said. “And love your neighbor.” Love for our neighbor is warped without our being able to love God first. Filial or fraternal or storge love can only grow in a godly way if  the foundation is built on agape. Else it will be always be a distortion. Our distortion, interpretation or perception.

How do I understand His love? Do I want to know? How deep is that desire in me?

How do I understand my neighbor? My family? Do I want to know? 

Matthew 18:23 – 35

What does it do for me? What is my take home message? How do I grow from reading it?

Are we paying time to our jailer? Or are we living free? Who holds the key?