There…and Here
What I would give —
To brush off the gravity that holds me down to the ground.
To soar beyond the clouds that can block the shining faces of a thousand stars from looking down upon this world from their far-off corners of the galaxy.
To see with my own eyes — not in pictures, not through a telescope, but face to face — the sheer magnificence, power, and beauty of those great sights in the universe. Planets. Moons. Stars. Nebulae. Galaxies…
And not just see them — but also walk on them, touch them, explore them. Experience with breathless awe the sensation of not just witnessing their presence, but also feeling their presence inside my very being.
Why is it that, when I look at these images inside of books, when I look up at the night sky and make out the Milky Way stretched across the expanse above me, I feel not just an uncontainable sense of wonder but also the inexpressible pangs of a heavy heart?
So much of me wants to be up there. It may not be the heaven — but when I see it, I feel closer to where God is. To where his paradise is. To where his full splendor is seen, unveiled.
“He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.“
Ephesians 4:10
I feel trapped.
I feel chained to this corrupt, polluted, ashen world. This jewel that has been laid waste to. This pearl in a sea of cosmic darkness that has become dirty and worn. This world that I have helped create by my sin.
As long as I am alive I need what this world provides: oxygen, water, food. But at the same time, I must also walk its grimy roads. And in so doing I look up, I see the stars, and I realize how much more beautiful God is compared to me. And how much I want to be with him.
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This world has become scratched up and bloodied by sin. But God has shown mercy to it. This world’s inhabitants did not and have not shown perfect love for their Creator — but he has shown perfect love to them: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…” (John 3:16a)
His Son, Jesus — “through whom all things came and through whom we live” (1 Corinthians 8:6) — chose to save me. And he — Immanuel, my Lord and Savior — has chosen to stay with me. Here.
“‘And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.‘”
Matthew 28:20b
In spite of the hurt we have inflicted, in spite of the filth we have proliferated — God is here. He has not left us. He continues to work on us, and to work through us to clean up this world.
To make it flavorful, to make it sparkle —
“‘You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world.'” (Matthew 5:13a, 14a)
— and to make it the most beautiful jewel set in the cosmos. A jewel that glistens with a God-given light —
Faith.
“For God…made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).
Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay
