There's a hymn called "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus" that we used to sing when I was younger. I haven't sung it for years--this morning it was used in our worship service. The refrain goes like this:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace.
There's another much more upbeat hymn that goes like this:
This world's not my home
I'm just passing through
My treasures and my hopes
Somewhere beyond the blue
Many friends and kindred
Have gone on before
And I can't feel at home
In this world anymore
Oh Lord you know
I have no friend like you
If heaven's not my home
Then Lord what will I do
The angels beckon me
To heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home
In this world anymore
Both of these songs convey the same message.
That
this world isn't for us, that
we don't belong here, that we should
look beyond the present for what God is really preparing for us later. That life after death will be something
else entirely.
Everything I write is somehow informed by my own background, and this sentiment was central to understanding this life for so long. I am just now working this out of my system, so what I'm saying may be very foreign to your own experience.
We were taught in so many ways that everything about this life was temporary and somehow bad--its pleasures, experiences, everything. That
enjoyment itself and all the other positive feelings we are capable of were bad. That pleasure itself wasn't to be trusted.
I don't see a lot of justification for this. When I look around with the eyes of my heart, I don't see the things of earth becoming "strangely dim." I see the things of earth becoming strangely lovely.
Strangely intriguing. Striking. Inviting even.
Interestingly, in my faith tradition we rarely talked about the Kingdom. Unfortunately for us, because Jesus spent a lot of time talking about it.
For now, let me observe that we were made
for this kind of life. As creatures of this universe, we're designed for a world of gravity, rain, moderate temperatures, alternating days and nights, and four seasons (unless you're from Texas, then you only get one).
This dirt, this grass, these trees, this oxygen. Don't you love it all? Don't you feel like
getting out in it? Basking, soaking, absorbing? God made this whole thing, pretty much in the way we find it.
Most of the damage we see on the planet has come at the hands of man. The calamities being suffered in Sudan are nearly completely man-made. (What would physically happen on the earth if all peoples lived in peace for just twenty years? Just
one generation.)
I'm not suggesting that this is utopia, or that it will be any time soon--I completely understand that we're dealing with this
fallen-ness. There is sickness, and sorrow, and death, and separation, and heaviness of heart.
But there is also this residual longing for
things to be the way they were, before the colossal fall. Before we chose to write our own rules, to try to control our own destiny, to strive to be something other than what we were created to be.
The heavens declare the glory of God,
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
(Psalm 19)
May we embrace the longings and the pleasures and the foretastes that God gives us
in this life. May we learn from them, and may we follow them.
Here's a Psalm that sees God all through a thunderstorm:
Psalm 29
Ascribe to the LORD, O mighty ones, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.
The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD thunders over the mighty waters.
The voice of the LORD is powerful.
The voice of the LORD is majestic.
The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, Sirion like a young wild ox.
The voice of the LORD strikes with flashes of lightning.
The voice of the LORD shakes the desert; the LORD shakes the Desert of Kadesh.
The voice of the LORD twists the oaks and strips the forests bare. And in his temple all cry, "Glory!"
The LORD sits enthroned over the flood;
the LORD is enthroned as King forever.
The LORD gives strength to his people;
the LORD blesses his people with peace.
May we see what this world teaches us about the very pleasures and glories of God. Let's look for the face of Jesus in all things.
Teaspoon Slide Guitar Man. You're gonna love this.
There's a hymn called "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus" that we used to sing when I was younger. I haven't sung it for years--this morning it was used in our worship service. The refrain goes like this:
