In the course of my wandering mind this morning my father’s death came back to me. It was the first time that anyone had died that really shook me. I had known people who committed suicide. I had known people who died in Vietnam. I had a friend who died of leukemia as he was preparing to be a missionary doctor. We have friends who had lost a baby minutes before it was born. I was not a stranger to death.
My father‘s death was somehow different. I remember going down the street and noticing that the rest of the world was going on just as it always had. I felt like stopping and screaming at people. I wanted to ask them, “Don’t you know what just happened?” I didn’t do that, but I wanted to for quite a while. The center of my world, in a sense, that come apart, and I wondered why everybody else didn’t care.
The reason my wandering mind went there this morning was I was struggling with the concept of God relating to Israel as a nation as opposed to God relating to individuals in the plan of salvation. As a nation, God could punish the entire body of people with dire consequences. On the other hand our eternal salvation is one-on-one. It is us and Jesus. It is up to us where we spend forever.
This gives me insight into the God I love and serve. On the one hand, He is capable of keeping the entire universe going. We have supernovas taking place. Scientist think there are such things as black holes. At the same time, this God is concerned about me and His Holy Spirit acts as a Comforter, a Helper, the Paraklete. He is at the reaches of eternity, and at the same time He’s giving me individual attention in my heart.
And both go on at the same time. What happens to me does not really matter to the Andromeda galaxy. I could die tomorrow and it would not affect the red spot on Jupiter. At the same time I am important to Him. He will give me that individual attention that is not based on my narcissism, but upon His love. The universe will go on, no matter what happens to me. Life will continue no matter who wins the election and what the actual results are. America may fall. Communism may triumph for a while. But I am still a child of God and citizen of eternity.
Nothing can change that, even the big bang.
homo unius libri
Friday, September 6, 2024
Opus 2024-258: Know Your Place
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