God presented us with a beautiful, wonderful world!
On Nature, a PBS program that I watched Sunday evening, the complexity of the Creation was on full display. From tiny creatures to huge whales, in vivid colors, I saw God's creativity in a way that makes the best art of humanity look like the crayon sketches of a little child. And then I see what man does to Creation - polluted rivers dying, amazing jungle habitats burned, blue skies turned grey with smoke.
God's gifts go beyond the splendor of rivers, oceans, and canyons. He gave us the exquisite gift of love and sexuality, the ability to become 'one' with another. What can compare to the love of a man and a woman? And what have we done with that? We have turned love into a commodity. We cheapened sex, made it into an act of the darkness. We sell it on the street, use it to enslave and exploit, and turn something beautiful into something that pollutes body and soul!
Yet, another gift of God, the desire to know Him that He placed in us, that longing for Life; is turned into religion that only produces Death! The glory of the Transcendent Lord was 'exchanged for images made to look like mortal men, and birds, and animals, and reptiles.'
Thus, Jeremiah laments that "the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9, NIV)
But, all is not lost. As we celebrate Advent we find the Promise that brings us to renewed hope for the restoration of all things at the coming of the Lord. Our hope looks back to the Incarnation, when "the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." And, we saw "His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14, NIV) He lived to bring us Truth about our God, died to bring us Reconciliation with our God, and was resurrected to bring us Eternal Life in the presence of our God. However, that was only the first act! The second act is the Coming of the Lord of Glory. John, in language rich with symbolism, explains that He will ride out of Heaven to destroy evil and restore what God made to bless us. "I saw Heaven open wide—and oh! a white horse and its Rider. The Rider, named Faithful and True, judges and makes war in pure righteousness. . . . On his robe and thigh is written, King of kings, Lord of lords." (Revelation 19:11, 16, The Message)
And this, Believer, is what the Season is really all about. No wonder we rejoice. In this intermission between the Incarnation and the Revelation, we have the opportunity to be agents of reconciliation that appeal to those around to look up, to turn from their devotion to empty things to gaze on the wonder of His majesty. We invite them to accept the grace of God, to become part of the conspiracy of righteousness, which Jesus described this way. "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches. . . . The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough." (Matthew 13:31-33, NIV)
Do you live in the Light?
Do you know the Truth of the Word?
Are you filled with the Beauty of His Holiness?
The Gift is yours to receive, by faith, provided without cost to you, at great cost to God. Accept Him today. In honesty, own up to the darkness, the hidden sin, the rejection of His ways, the ignorance that made you a slave to evil. But don't wallow in guilt! Take the offer of grace that makes you a child of God, that restores your inheritance, that gives you dignity and worth. Believer, live in that Glory. "Become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life." (Philippians 2:15-16, NIV)
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Joy to the world, the Lord is come.
Let earth receive her King.
Let every heart prepare Him room,
and Heaven and nature sing!
No more let sin and sorrows grow,
nor thorns infest the ground.
He comes to make,His blessings flow,
far as the Curse is found!
He rules the world with Truth and Grace,
and makes the nations prove,
the glories of His righteousness.
and wonders of His love.
-- Isaac Watts, Public Domain
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