Issue 1263 – Up Up and Away – October 1, 2023
I snapped this shot of a dead tree spar while visiting the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest recently. We had found one of the very few empty spots to pull over and take some photos.
For whatever reason, this pair of long-dead trees caught my eye. I was intrigued by the idea of being attached to the ground but stretching high up into the sky. I know that trees do that as a matter of course, but it struck me anew looking at these spars.
It was almost as if they were stretching towards heaven. Perhaps no one else has that thought, but that is how my mind works.
It made me think of the followers of Christ. There is a sense in which we are grounded to this little blue planet third from the sun. It is where we spend our lives. We can jump in the air or fly off in a plane or balloon, but gravity keeps us affixed. Our physical bodies are well and truly anchored here.
Yet, a part of us longs to be with the Lord.
God is sovereign over the universe he created, and there is a sense in which He is totally outside His creation. We tend to think of heaven as being “in the sky.” We often look heavenward when we pray of worship, seeking that connection with God.
Of course, that thought makes us wonder, “Where is heaven?” The Scriptures are clear that “heaven” is a real place, but it doesn’t give us clues about its location. We might define heaven as being “Where God is.” Since we cannot quantify that statement, we opt for “up there.” It is an incomplete answer, but perhaps all we can comprehend until we get there.
With our physical bodies rooted to the ground, we reach up, up and away towards heaven to our Lord. Of course, the Lord isn’t just “up there, somewhere.” His Spirit resides within every true believer. His Spirit also calls out to non-believers, convicting them of sin and calling them to repentance.
He is here and up there both.
It is comforting to me to know that He isn’t just up there and distant. He is as close as my spiritual heart and involved in my daily life. He cares about what happens way down here.
I get God bumps when I read words like,
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Philippians 2:5-7
As believers, we get so comfortable with the idea that Jesus came as a man. We trivialize it at times. After all, of course, He would come for us, wouldn’t He?
The fact that He would step from up there to down here, in human form, to save wretched rebellious sinners is shocking. It ought to give us God bumps to think about it.
It’s no wonder the Psalmist could pen words like…
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! Psalm 8:3-9
Who are we indeed to merit such attention? It isn’t something we deserve. It is the great love of God who knows that no matter how high we reach on our own, we can never touch Him. The love that reaches down to embrace the unloveable. The mercy to take our sin debt upon Himself so we could be freed by faith.
May we continue to strive to reach out and worship and serve Him while marvelling that He would choose to dwell within us. May we rejoice knowing that He meets us where we are but wants us to be so much more.
May all creation praise His glorious name.
Be blessed
Hallelu Yah / Praise God
Kevin
Gleanings From The Word
Experience an extraordinary God in ordinary life.
Soli Deo Gloria (For the glory of God alone)
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All contents, “Gleanings From The Word” and “Experience an Extraordinary God in Ordinary Life,” are © 2001, 2023 KF “Kevin” Corbin Gleanings From The Word.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is from the English Standard Version (ESV).
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