Hopefully you got the chance tonight to see the amazing lunar eclipse tonight. The artwork God puts on the earth and throughout this universe absolutely amazes me. Our God must be so incredibly creative.
Just think about it.
He (a three-in-one, uncreated, perfect being) has been around forever. He has dwelt with wisdom and filled space with his bigness. Only, in a sense, there isn't any space. So, just because he is a God of creativity, he creates light. (Interestingly, he didn't seem to create darkness...just light to fill it, demonstrating that he is the light). Through this he created what would become the earthly sense of time, something from which God lived and continues to live completely apart. Just these two things are unfathomable. Imagine living in total darkness of which you occupy every space for your entire life (having absolutely nothing else), and then just suddenly having the idea for light and color, and the idea for an abstract sense of time. Yeah, that's right...humanly, that's not really possible (exemplifying the fact that we are creatures and not self-creating). But that was just day one for God.
Day two came and God created the heavens and the earth. Now, even though all there's ever been was an abstract, timeless, dark void, there's suddenly light, color, time, and a physical nature.
But that wasn't enough.
On day three God created seas and land and their separation. On top of creating a planet, God opts to give it both solid and liquid aspects.
And still, God had more creativity coming.
Now, with the earth in place, God decided to add a whole solar system to light up his creation (using his earlier concepts of light and time). And then, just because God really loves creating things, there are birds, fish, land animals, plants...it's amazing.
Yet, God wasn't quite done.
In an incredible act of love and creativity, he created people. Living, breathing, thinking, heart-pumping human beings. And he gave them not just the beautiful Garden of Eden that we tend to think of, but also the rest of the earth. These people were seriously blessed and loved. The only thing was they couldn't eat from this one tree.
And, well...they did.
Unfortunately, the appropriate punishment for this was death. And God is just, so he assured them of their death and many other miserable things while they still lived.
But he was merciful. So, so merciful. He could have not made them or anything in our world in the first place. But he made it anyway.
He could have chosen to kill them the second they messed up. But he didn't.
He could have chosen to leave them hopeless forever. But he didn't.
He let them have children. He gave them the whole earth except for the Garden of Eden. He blessed them with long lives. Best of all, he promised that one day, a Savior would come and offer hope. Justice and mercy have never mingled so beautifully as they have in the being of our God.
That Savior came. Because death was the punishment, but only a righteous person could satisfy the requirement of perfection before a holy God, Jesus came down. God became man.
That's like you becoming your childhood plaything. (Not that we are God's playthings, but I think you get my point.) That's like a US President becoming a rat while still being the President. Yet far, far worse.
It is the king of the whole universe, the one responsible for creating things like we see in space tonight, for designing DNA, for coming up with a concept of time and a sense of light, suddenly reducing himself to the level of something, though once beautiful, which has reduced itself to scum. On top of that, it's that king reduced to scum living the lowest life of all the scum. And then dying the most painful, humiliating death for the lowest of the low scum. While he was still the king.
And yet, Jesus asked for this. This is the really incredible part: he planned this before he ever set the universe in motion. He knew we'd mess up. And he asked the Father for a gift of a redeemed mankind, offering up even his own life. That's how selfless and beautiful this God is, that he would die for his creation, simply to give them redemption. He didn't have to. But he did.
Miraculously, though, he didn't just stay dead. Because he is God, and he promised in milennia past that he would crush death and evil, he did just that. He literally went and defeated death. In other words, he dealt with the devil, did battle in the depths, and arose victorious, because he is God.
And on the third day after his death, he rose to earth. Shortly afterward, he went to heaven to be reunited with his Father, and to do something amazing again: to prepare places for us, broken sinners, in heaven. All we need to do is trust him with our lives. He promises that if we do so, he will send his own spirit to dwell in us and guide our steps.
But, the story gets even better! When all is said and done, when all who have faith in Christ have been called up to him, he will make the final blow on death, causing all those who did not follow him to live separate from him in a miserable place called hell...and bringing heaven onto earth for those who follow him. Literally. The whole earth will be restored and, in the words of the Bible, the lion will lie down with the lamb. There will be no conflict. No pain. No sorrow. Just pure, beautiful love for each other, for the world, and for the God who did all this for us. The God who is so eternal. So creative. So just. So merciful. So loving. So awe-striking. So miraculous. So beautiful. So GOD.
Tonight, I'm looking at the red slowly fading from the moon. And I'm realizing that my role in this whole world isn't really that big. But I know that there is a God out there who is huge and amazing and who loves ME. Who lives in me. Who knows me better than I know myself. Who sustains my very breath. Who has a unique call on my life. Who placed me in the universe. Who gave me hope. Who gives everything its being. Who will never, ever fade. Who lived and died for me. For you. For the broken, messed up world.
And I am speechless.
Shalom.
Meridian
