Larger Story 3

Lea and I got to spend time with our children and granddaughter last night. Our middle son and his wife are two weeks away from moving to Brooklyn. Our son will be attending school there. Our youngest is home for several months from college. In God's care, his school made it for the whole semester with minimal Covid cases. We are so thankful to have some time with him over these next months before he returns for semester two. Our oldest and his wife and daughter are living these days of learning in Nashville. Today Emma is 9 months.

Last night while everyone was around our table, Lea and I walked around the corner into the kitchen to get something from the pantry. As we lingered at the pantry door, we could hear our children and granddaughter talking together, laughing together, being together. Lea looked into my face and declared, "We have prayed and thought about moments like these." Yes. I want them.

In these years where our family is primarily dispersed away from one another, moments like last night are so sweet and so desirable that there is a pull to lock into that moment and not move. As sweet as it is, as much as I want it, as dear as those hearts are to me, I want there to be more than that. For us and for them. There is. Thank God there's more. The moments around story table at Beacon Hall or wherever you gather with those you love are really moments to savor and celebrate that they are happening because there IS a larger story. There is something larger than right then, right there, those hearts. Expansively larger. It's this larger story that we are stimulating our minds to consider and take in over these current weeks. Recall the guts and glory of the most real story there is. No athletic storyline. No political storyline. No family storyline. No pandemic storyline. No storyline more real than this one.

1.Who is God?

A perfectly happy community of 3 Persons whose nature is holiness and way of relating is love.

2.What's He up to?

Glorifying Himself by beautifying us.

There's a part of me that thinks, don't even try this. Don't even try putting words and thoughts to this thought because of how outrageously large it is. But remember, we're practicing, we're recalling the story to stimulate our minds to wholesome thinking. So a few earthly words to loosen the soil.

His glory and our beauty are linked. Wallow in this. Let the fullness of what you can know of this story flash through your minds eye. "He came unto His own and His own received Him not." He created us. We spit in his face. Representatives of us slit his side, nailed his wrists and ankles to a tree, and mocked Him to His Kingly face. That he would even associate His glory with us is scandalous. But link Himself to our beauty? Keep wallowing. Let the impossible probability that this should not ever happen grip your perhaps cold or callous heart and shake you. His glory and our beauty are linked.

Remember. This perfectly, happy community of 3 persons are perfectly happy before or after we ever enter the story. We aren't changing who and how They are. BUT. They are changing who and how we are. And them changing who and how we are brings glory to Them. And what is that "bringing them glory"? I don't know. I really don't. It's so big that I can't possibly know. But I want the "stimulating my mind to wholesome thinking", so I'll think about it. They know that They are the only, only, only, only way that who and how we are will ever change. So when we change because of Them, there is delight. They are the only, only, only, only way that we go from "received Him not" to receive Him. And somehow, even though They don't need anything about that change in us to make them happy or whole in any way, they choose to delight in it. They choose to delight in us.

There is one spot in the Bible that has particularly stirred me about these thoughts. It's the Bible book of Revelation, chapter 4 and specifically verse 11. The scene is John who is receiving vision from the Lord. In this particular spot he is receiving vision about the throne of God. In the midst of this elaborate vision of the throne, there are not so ordinary creatures that looked like men and animals with six wings and eyes all over them, even under the wings. And they are given action. They NEVER STOP SAYING, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come." If you never stop saying something, perhaps you're practicing it. There are also 24 people, referred to as elders, there. It tells us that while the creatures are continually practicing the holy, holy, holy words, the elders fall down before the One on the throne and worship Him. They lay crowns before the throne and those 24 PEOPLE, say, " You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things and by Your will they were created and have their being."

Wait. The One on the throne receives? Hold on a second. He doesn't need anything. He doesn't need to receive anything. Perfectly happy community of 3 persons. How can this be? He chooses to receive glory and honor and power. From who? People. LLLAAARRRGGGEEERRR story! He delights in receiving glory from ones that He is the only, only, only way they would ever be changing who and how they are.

He does change who and how people are.

When we are changed, we can declare the greatness of who God is TO HIM!

And He chooses to receive glory in the midst of this unnecessary for Him, necessary for us, exchange.

2.What's He up to?

Glorifying Himself by beautifying us.

His glory and our beauty are linked.

Beautiful.

There's more.