Shadows of Heaven

I see so many things that remind me of God. My wife often teases me because I claim to see theological implications in the most mundane details of life. I'll admit, some of my ideas may be a little far-fetched. But not all of them. I believe that Earth as we know it is a reflection of Heaven. A tainted, dim, fallen shadow of Heaven. This is why I often see evidence of Heaven on Earth. It reminds me of that verse in Colossians, "These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ."

Lately, one of the things I've been thinking about is sleeping. Yes, I see theological implications in our sleep patterns. Let me explain...

We wake up. We feel good (usually). We are renewed, refreshed, and ready for what the day may bring. We shower, we get cleaned up. We work, and work, and work some more. We pray, we eat, we relax. We get tired. Really tired. We sit down, we lay down. Our eyes get heavy. We get ready for bed, we are ready to go to sleep. We fall asleep.

Sound familiar? It sure does to me. Do you see anything else?

I believe each day we live is a condensed version of our entire lives. We wake up [we are born], we work [we grow up], we lay down [we grow old & sick] and we fall asleep [we die].

One verse of Scripture that really makes me think about this is Matthew 9:24. When the synagogue leader told Jesus his daughter had died, he was hoping Jesus would come over and lay his hands on her. The synagogue leader believed this would heal his daughter and bring her back to life. Jesus said to the man, "The girl is not dead but asleep." Jesus went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. Jesus 'woke up' a dead girl - a girl he referred to as "sleeping."

Jesus referred to death as being asleep, and Matthew 9:24 isn't the only reference to this. In John 11:11, after Jesus' friend Lazarus had died, Jesus said, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”

It is so interesting to me that the Lord of Heaven refers to death as being asleep. Actually, it makes me feel so much better about death. After all, as believers, when we die we are just taking a nap until the Lord Jesus wakes us up again. And when he does, oh what a day it will be!

I hope he has coffee.

To Know and Be Known

I've heard it said that the basic longing of every human soul is to know and be known. I guess that's not surprising - we are relational beings. All of us are generally happy when our relationships are fulfilling, or generally sad when our relationships are broken. When we're connected to friends & family, life seems to be more enjoyable. It's kind of funny if you think about it - if something is challenging in my life, the challenge is more bearable for me if others know about it. Has anything changed regarding my challenge? No. But somehow, the challenge is more bearable if others are with me on the journey. It's like something magical happens when we share our burdens with others, even if others are not directly helping us. Just having them know about what's going on in our lives helps get us through it. It's encouraging. It's affirming. It's validating.

Nowhere is this more apparent than on Facebook. Sometimes people post the most mundane details of their lives - things like "Heading to the grocery store - wish me luck". Why? Because just having other people know about it is validating. In that moment, it quenches their desire to be known.

And, there will inevitably be at least one person who follows it up with a "Like". There really isn't anything likeable about heading to the grocery store, but somehow it warrants a "Like". I think for the 'Liker' it's less about likeability and more about encouragement. It's kind of like saying, "Oh, you're heading to the grocery store? I know you and now I know you're going. Go for it!"

But then I started thinking to myself, Am I spending more time getting to know others, or more time trying to be known? It's really a lesson in self-centeredness. My pastor has put it this way: "Am I a 'here I am' kind of person, or a 'there you are' kind of person?" We all know them - those 'Here I am' people who walk into a room and expect everyone to notice them and give them attention. They tend to suck the life out of the entire room. Contrast that with the 'There you are' people who breathe life into the room by showing interest in others. They take attention off themselves and put it onto others, which affirms and encourages everyone they interact with. Ironically, it's the 'Here I am' people who are trying to be liked, but it's the 'There you are' people who actually succeed. People tend to love those who show interest in others. Why? Because people want to be known and you are showing interest in knowing them.

For me, the challenge isn't showing an interest in others but rather continuing to show interest after I realize they are a 'Here I am' person. They lack the conversational intuition to know when enough is enough, and they latch onto me until all my grace is gone. It's kind of like I don't want to encourage their selfishness by continuing to listen. It boggles my mind how some people will just take and take, but never give back - even among my Christian friends. I'll ask them question after question about their lives, but some of them almost never ask me a question about mine.

But, I'm sure from God's point of view I also appear to be a 'Here I am' kind of person. Most of my prayers center around me - my needs and my desires. Thank God for being an endless source of grace - He never runs out of grace to shower me with. I wish I could be more like Him. Thankfully, He is providing me with more and more reserve tanks of grace - extra measures of grace & patience which help bring me a little closer to a 'There you are' kind of person. Do I still relapse back to impatience? Sometimes. Do I still get frustrated? You bet. But, at least it's getting better.

Image of God

I often think about how the Bible describes the creation of man. In fact, since I've had children I think about it more and more.

The Bible says, "And God created man in his own image: in the image of God he created him: male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:27).

Because we often associate the word "image" with what we see with our eyes, a common sense interpretation of this would be that God made man to look like Him. But, the Bible says that God is Spirit (John 4:24) and I definitely don't look like a Spirit so it must mean something else entirely.

Since I've had children, God has really been teaching me what it means to be created in His image. In fact, I now believe He intends for us to understand this through the raising of our own children. It's through this relational interpretation of the "Image of God" that we start understanding things like the essence of love, selflessness, commitment, patience, rebellion, discipline, forgiveness and true joy. Since my two boys have been born, those words have taken on whole new meanings. I honestly don't think I understood words like selflessness and joy until I had children of my own. Now, those are more than words - those words actually hold memories for me.

Since I've had children I've come to understand that my children's relationship with me is a reflection of my relationship with Jesus. In this way, I am made as a reflection (or image) of God. God's intellect, will, emotion and relational attributes are reflected off of me and onto my children. I am therefore a reflection of God to my children - an image of God.

This is both inspiring and scary for me. Inspiring because I'm reflecting God's character to my children; and it's scary for the same reason. If I'm walking closely with Jesus, God's image becomes clearer for my children. If I turn away from Jesus, that image is obscured.

Lord, may the fruit of your Spirit, your true character, be evident in my life. May my life closely resemble your image for my children.