A young man rides his bike in the driving rain across an underpass with two additional bicycles slung across his shoulder
My sons exclaim his notable strength
But I see poverty
Loneliness
The trees that have been hewn down here so that men cannot hide or sleep among them
Once I saw a man try to fit a motorcycle into the back of an SUV at a gas station
It would not fit, but still there were the pieces of a first world story—two men, two motorized vehicles, no rain that day.
The least I can do is….
The least I can do for…
The strongest man who ever carried the loneliness of the world in a storm
The God who rescues
Matthew 25:35-36 KJV [35] For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: [36] Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
They were beautiful young women, one aisle over in ladies’ slacks, discussing a friend? A relative? She hasn’t taken it yet…really?!..isn’t she on birth control anyway?
There are words and contexts in between us—
me, the lady who does not know the girl who has not taken it yet, but wants to say this to them anyway—
If this is about a baby, tell her I will help her, any way I can help her with a child she should know, name, love, be transformed by
They—
knowing her, but not realizing how close we all came to Crazy Lady Town, pop. One.
Two, for now, if my guess is right
My regret, I hand to you
I should have done it
I should have brooked their discomfort
After all, we are treasure hunters here, aren’t we?
Matthew 5:3 KJV [3] Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus was, is, and will be a physical reality of human history. His part in our story is so elemental that it cannot be said enough—Jesus means “God saves.”
By definition and reality, the Holy Spirit is more ephemeral. Our definitions of him are often more similes than portraits.
He is like a dove
He is like fire
He is the air in our lungs and our souls (not a metaphor).
Look for God, the Triune, interventional, rescuing God.
Joel 3:10-11,15-16 KJV [10] Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. [11] Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. [15] The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. [16] The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.
Acts 2:16-21 KJV [16] But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; [17] And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: [18] And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: [19] And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: [20] The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: [21] And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Joel 2:1-2,30-32 KJV [1] Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand; [2] A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. [30] And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. [31] The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come. [32] And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.
1 Thessalonians 5:1-9 KJV [1] But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. [2] For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. [3] For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. [4] But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. [5] Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. [6] Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. [7] For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. [8] But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. [9] For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
For an unspecified amount of time I have had a homework assignment I cannot complete.
How could you transmit the story of God becoming a man and living among humans to die for our ordinary and terrible actions, our helplessness and death? Then triumphing over death and rising again to rescue us and give us a home forever in a safe and wonderful place?
How would you do that in pictures? Without a common language? How would you send that message out to people far away who did not know you, have a common language and who had never heard about Jesus?
Yesterday I wrote a sincere, non-resistant, genuine email to John “JL” Schellenberg about his long-held but fallacy-ridden philosophy that a group of fictional people refute the existence of God. I made it simple, personal, and I referred to my own experience and Sesame Street.
No answer.
I am experiencing Schellenberg Hiddenness.
I am pretty bummed. So much so that I will have to consign my thoughts to the philosophical non-existence of a benevolent, interventionist Schellenberg to a part 2 post.
If you can get him to respond or have evidence he is there, please let me know ASAP!!!
