We had some serious wind this morning. The roar of it moving through the maples and pines totally drowned out all other sounds. But of greater interest was our resident Sharp-shinned Hawk. He was hovering above me face into the wind and without a steady beat of his wings held his place without being blown away. As an old pilot who has had his share of being blown all over the sky I was amazed. How could he do it? By what configuration of his wings could he maintain position in that fierce wind?
My mind immediately went to Job 39, a magnificent poetic rebuke by God, where God asks Job question after question about nature. In verse 26 God asked, “Does the hawk take flight by your wisdom and spread its wings towards the south?” My hawk was heading west but the question was the same. My wisdom was confounded.
There is so much that confounds me. The list grows longer with the passing of years. For so many things I have run out of logic and have surrendered to the truth that there is an eternity of things yet to learn. Stephen Hawking, physicist and mathematician, has, after a lifetime of inquiry, stated there is effect without cause. There was no beginning to the universe. There was no first cause. It just is. I am fascinated because it seems to my feeble intellect that he finally has said what Christians have been saying about the creator God. He had no beginning. He just is. And because He is, He intelligently designed us. We have been accused of not being scientists but metaphysicians. Now both Hawking and we are positioned by some kind of faith. We are both in the same camp – ALMOST.
Never Sever
The card reader on my computer stopped working. I tried everything my non-nerd brain could think to try. I rebooted. I restored my system to an earlier date. I ran an antiviral program. I turned it off and waited two minutes before turning it on again. All of this was to no avail. Alas, I pulled all the plugs and wires and took it to a computer repair shop. I think you know what happened. I thought it only happened with cars. When the tech plugged in the computer the card reader worked. The only conclusion we could come up with was that by completely severing all power we allowed for a total reset.
So I thought maybe this is a good illustration of our relationship with Christ. When it stops working we should completely disengage from God and then come back for a totally new start. Then I realized this is a horrible illustration. This is nuts. It is true; rededication of our lives to Christ is a good idea. But, we should NEVER sever our relationship so we then can renew it and thus enhance it. That doesn’t make good sense. It is akin to Romans 6 where people suggested they should sin more so grace could abound.
It’s like saying I should stop loving my wife for a week so when I start again it will be a stronger and better love. We just can’t turn love on and off as if it were a light bulb. Love is an integral part of our being. With love we establish and maintain relationships. It is love that brought us into this world and love that transports us to the next.
Stand Back and Be Amazed
According to Hebrew tradition there are 613 laws in the Torah. Three hundred and sixty-five, one for each day of the year, are negative (the don’ts) and 248 are positive (the dos). This does not mean principles were not understood. In Mark 12 after Jesus had responded to a teacher of the law the man said, “Well said, teacher. You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” But it is indicative that obedience to law is paramount in the Jewish experience.
Thus the rich young ruler’s question to Jesus, “What must I do to be saved?” Jesus’ response was very traditional. He told the young man to keep the commandments. The young man claimed to have done so all his life but he was still spiritually hungry. After the young man departed Jesus’ comments about how difficult it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom led up to this exchange. “The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, ‘Who then can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.’”
There it is from Jesus’ own mouth. If it were up to us we would never make it. It is impossible. But He will not leave us despondent and heartbroken. He adds that all things are possible with God. Don’t fail to notice the word “all.” That encompasses the very worst of us. Can God save Hitler? He can and would if Hitler had asked. Stand back and be amazed!