We are foreigners in our own land.
"When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?" ~ Psalm 8:3-4 ~
Ahh, the perpetual longing of the psalmist. The question asked by someone convinced that there is no God because the evidence isn't seen. The question asked by the seeker. The question asked by the believer struggling with circumstances they cannot control. There is only one answer to this question. Just one. That's it. And in that answer is the complete embodiment of God's heart: Jesus.
Compassion, love, peace, joy ... Jesus embodied the qualities and motives found within God himself. "I and the Father are one." But also the Holy Spirit that indwelt Jesus after John the Baptist, well, baptized him. Jesus is the embodiment of the entire trinity on earth. It is through Jesus that we have access to the Holy Spirit and through Jesus that we can approach the heavenly throne room adorned in grace, mercy, and love. Our shame and our pain are nothing because of that adornment. These things can't be found any other way.
I've recently heard a lot of chatter about some pretty controversial topics: The 2nd amendment in light of a recent school shooting. Abortion access considering that where I live there is a bill to extend the option of abortion beyond viability. I'm generally one of those sitting on the sidelines listening to all of the arguements snacking on some popcorn, because like a good movie, the banter is full of drama, heartbreaking, and, at times, downright silly. Shaking my head, I ask God exactly what the psalmist does: the human race is so messed up, the work of your hands is so intricate and glorious why I are you so interested in us? The answer is simple: love. You don't rescue what you don't love. You don't search for the one you don't love, even though you still love the ninety-nine. You don't give up everything, even your own life, for something you don't love.
We have to be careful about where we give our love. Idolatry. Idolatry is placing value and love of one thing over and above the One who loved us first. In this American culture it often looks like our "rights" to x, y, or z. We place the importance of those rights over understanding that we do not live in a perfect world, and this world will never be perfect. <gasp> This world is so grossly fallen and broken. No political or economic system is "God's ordained method". Nope, because every example we see on earth was created by fallen and broken human beings. All of humanity is broken. Until I am standing in a glorified body in the New Jerusalem, I am fully broken. Yet, I am fully redeemed and made whole before God through Jesus. Still broken before other people, still functioning in a broken world, still being continually renewed and healed, but I am still not a completely whole creation except before God.
Our love, our compassion, our dedication and diligence belong in one place: with Jesus, to remain in Him connected to the vine branching out into the world with His love, His compassion, His dedication and His diligence bringing us back to Him. We cannot change this broken world. We cannot successfully legislate morality. We cannot force people to do what is right. God points this out in the last chapter of Daniel:
"He replied, 'Go your way, Daniel, because the words are rolled up and sealed until the time of the end. Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand.'" ~ Daniel 12:9-10 ~
Just as we will always have the poor, we will always have unethical and immoral behavior on this earth. It is only because of Jesus' love, compassion, and mercy that the criminal condemned to die on the cross next to Him was given a seat in heaven. When that criminal asked to be remembered in heaven all he did was acknowledge that Jesus was sentenced to death for crimes He did not commit. I'm am pretty sure that he had no clue how deep and how wide was the extent of the crimes, sins, for which Jesus really died.
As I sit with my popcorn seeing accusation, mud, hatred, even mild dislike and intolerance be slung across the divide of a culturally polarizing topics, I can tell you that nothing will ever be perfect. At least, not yet. We are wrong trying to fix heavenly issues with human solutions. The only answer is Jesus: an encounter with the living, breathing Jesus. To pursue a relationship with Him is the only thing that will make all of the wrongs right. Hearts change before behavior does. Jesus was angry with the pharisees and those selling in the temple courts, but with sinners He offered compassion, love, grace, and mercy. The heart was the thermometer, not the behavior.
Our home was meant to be walking in the garden with God, not dealing with this mess we've made for ourselves. When we look at the struggles of this world, we have to remember that we are aliens, foreigners, in this place. We are in the in between, travelers between our current circumstances and our eternal home. I am both fully British and fully American, yet when I travel others view me as neither; I don't fit the mold they expect. The truth is, I am simply a Jesus follower on a journey through my current circumstances to be at home with Him, as the Father intended at the dawn of creation.
Stirred,
Ruth