Perspectives

I'm sure it never looks good to a pastor or speaker when they stand up at the podium, look out at the people gathered before them, and see people typing something into their phone. In this modern age, people are doing everything from playing Angry Birds to planning their lunch after the message, and I am sure that is somewhat disconcerting as the speaker. This thought was foremost in my mind this week, as I sat and listened to our speaker at church. Now - some weeks, I am the one who sits in back and puts the lyrics up for the worship songs. Some of the time, I will slip out before the second message. Other times, I have to stay for one obligation or another, or I stay just so that I can sit with my hubby in the service. This week was one of those weeks. To be completely honest, I didn't entirely WANT to stay for the second service. BUT...I knew if I left, I wouldn't get a nap in, and didn't have anything else to do, so I slipped into the seat next to my husband, and prepared to fight to stay awake through the second telling of the speaker's story. (FYI - this isn't so much a commentary on the speaker, as on the fact that I only got about 3 hours of sleep the night before, and I was dog tired!) Thankfully, the second service message was pulled together a little better than the first, and I couldn't help pulling out my phone and jotting down some ideas for things to write about later - hence this post! The idea that came to mind was simple. Forever existed before we ever did.

Think about that. Forever. Eternity. More time that we can even conceptualize. All of that passed before God ever even CREATED us. We argue back and forth about creation vs. evolution, how long the earth has existed, how many millions of years our solar system has been here. But all of that time? That's the blink of an eye to God. We've lost the forest in the trees, my friends. We get so bogged down in the day to day. We get bogged down in how to we make it to the next payday. We get bogged down in gay rights and politics and the latest singer and the antics of a movie star with an addiction problem. In our perspective, they all seem to matter. But in the true grand scheme....the grandest of all schemes...they're nothing. Our lives, no matter how long they are, are a vapor. Zoom out....the creator of our entire universe...of more than we can even conceptualize...is timeless and unchanging - no number of zeros behind a 1 can tell you His age. Forever. Now zoom back in.

An ageless, unchanging, timeless GOD, who had no loneliness or NEED of us, created us to be IN RELATIONSHIP with Him. He created us as body, soul, and spirit - triune - three in one - to communicate with HIM. Zoom out - Timeless, beyond what we can even think of in our brains...and then zoom in...All powerful creator God...who loved us enough to lay down his Godliness to become flesh...to become the PERFECT sacrifice...so that we can still have union with Him. Doesn't that just blow you away? Such a small offering we are, in thanks for all He is, and yet, He considers it enough. I've been overwhelmed lately with the concept of the love of God. I think I'll go into it more in another post, but the many facets of that relationship are so diamond-like in their beauty. So many angles, and so much joy. I am tempted to spend most of my life zoomed in (and usually obsessing over) the small details. But to quote a famous author..."Don't sweat the small stuff...and it's all small stuff." And it truly, truly is. Zoom out to "God level"...doesn't it seem trivial? Forever existed before we were ever created. Just think on that for a bit.