"What is really going on here?"
This is the most important question we could ever ask. As you will see, I believe there is a great deal 'going on here.' We must get to the bottom of this--or better, we must get to the middle of this.
Our lives are spent within a tangled web of mythic realities. Mythic, not in the sense of being imagined or made-up, but mythic in proportion and magnitude. These mythic realities are the truest, most intentional events, and the sum of them is the sum of God's ways and means.
I believe these mythic realities reveal something of God, and of our lives as well. Each can be discussed at great length, but only at the peril of compromising their significance. They are best experienced--not described or discussed. So I will keep my discussion of them brief, and allow the others living within the mystery to add what they will.
Ruth didn't know
ReplyDeleteA chapter of her life is well-documented, but she may have never known her place in history. I invite you to consider these simple concluding remarks from the book of Ruth:
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So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. Then he went to her, and the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. The women said to Naomi: "Praise be to the LORD, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth." Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and cared for him. The women living there said, "Naomi has a son." And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
This, then, is the family line of Perez: Perez was the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, Boaz the father of Obed, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David.
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Ruth's name isn't even mentioned in the official genealogy, but does anyone wonder about her significance in history?
We don't always have to know exactly 'what's going on here.' He never said we would have that kind of awareness. I believe we are equipped with a dashboard light (the Spirit) that alerts us to significance when it is upon us.
Now that I think about it, that's what faith is. The substance of things we hope for, and the evidence of the things we can't see (yet). In my words, something like, belief that there is something going on here.
The Litmus Test
ReplyDeleteThe main distinguishing feature of a truly mythic reality is that it is bigger than us. It exists apart from, over, above, or around us, and even when we come into its fulness, we still cannot contain it. It cannot be explained in terms of how we function or think.
That is what is meant by the word Mythic.