You know how you start to decorate for Christmas and you are rummaging through boxes, bags, and cartons looking for all the decorations that you know should be there and you stumble upon a few items that you forgot were there? Usually, they are ornaments that have been used many times over the years that you just can't seem to throw away, even though they are a bit out-dated because they seem to add that special 'touch' to the holiday. And you find that your rummaging has taken you down memory lane where you pause a moment as you hold these very special ornaments in your hand, recalling the origin and sentiment of each one. Oftentimes it is just a few out of the entire assortment of decorations that have this unique quality about them. Well, just about the time that you decide to 'reuse' them you realize that they have become cracked, broken, damaged slightly, but not quite enough to be thrown away...mostly because of how much you value them.
Tonight, I realized that this is now my family and we are those ornaments. Christopher's death has done this to us. This Christmas I find myself rummaging through memory after memory trying to find useful things to decorate with that will "help to make the season bright." I voiced some of these thoughts in a prayer on my way to bed and asked God to fix us and was interrupted with the thought 'strengthen that which remains.' I also felt that His response - if there was one - was not necessarily to 'fix' but to use us. Because just like the ornaments, each one of us holds sentimental value to Him even in this damaged condition and, ironically, that is what will add a very unique and timeless touch to His seasonal decorating.
This is probably what the apostle Paul meant when he said that we posses this treasure (the gospel) in earthen vessels. God knows that we are just fragile clay, but also that we are very useful and necessary to Him for carrying and declaring this good news to a broken world even if we ourselves are broken. And He is also a master Craftsman when it comes to 'restoring' broken things to their original or mint (unmarred, as if fresh from a place where something is manufactured) condition. In fact, that's why He sent Jesus, to seek and to save that which was lost and to redeem us back to Himself. And in grand style, along with angelic hosts announcing, 'peace on earth and good will to men' during a time when there was none, and that is still His mission today. THIS is the true meaning of Christmas that should never be covered over with beautiful decorations or packed away in storage bins and forgotten until next year.
Friday, December 23, 2011
Sunday, December 11, 2011
God knows...
...but we don't. It's getting to be just that simple for me.
Tonight I looked at a photo of my family from around the time we adopted our son, Christopher. He was about six months old at the time, our oldest son was almost two years old, and my wife and I never looked better. We were such a happy and beautiful family that I began telling people that we were 'the family that God built' because I knew He was the only One who could create such a family. And we were such a family.
We went on to become the poster family for the adoption agency that we went through to adopt our sons. From there, we spoke at churches and other functions in an effort to inspire other African-American families to do what we had done. We even participated in a pro-life rally in Montgomery, Alabama where I had the opportunity to sing and speak on the steps of the Capitol building! Our future was definitely bright and very promising, as I believed every word of Jeremiah 29:11. Once when our boys were older and we were expecting (finally!) our daughter, we received a prophetic word from the Lord that our entire family would be on stage ministering 'family.'
We also went on to experience our share of raising teenagers, and the challenges therein, along with our share of family dysfunction and malfunction. We seemed to be becoming a typical family, while trying to live godly as much as we knew how to. High school, football games, and dating made their way into our lives as well, along with behavioral issues, personality developments and conflicts, and bad habits, like smoking and sneaking out of the house. But it wasn't all bad. There was a lot to laugh about, which we did - a lot. And there is a lot to be proud of, which I am.
But who knew of the tragedy lurking around the corner waiting to strike our family? We certainly didn't. God did. And the only thing He told us, prophetically, was that there was a spirit of death in our home that we took authority over. Or did we? Could we? Looking back, we did everything we knew to do at that time, especially me being the strong man that Jesus spoke about in Matthew 12. I addressed the devil and my son on several occasions about their futures according to the scriptures. But who knew? God did. From the time we first laid eyes on him as a three month-old baby and my wife later had a 'burden' that we should adopt him.
If it is true that God knows the end from the beginning, and then in Ecclesiastes declares that the end of a thing is better than its beginning, then God must know something that we don't. And I think He chooses not to reveal it to us mostly because He knows that we will not believe and follow His plan or we will do like Peter and try to thwart it. How many times have we taken Him aside and rebuked Him because we didn't like what He said and thought it was the devil? Only to find, again like Peter, that WE get rebuked for playing the devil's advocate? A Christian songwriter once wrote,
"God is God and I am not.
I can only see a part of the picture He's painting.
God is God and I am man.
So I'll never understand it all, for only God is God."
This answers everything in our lives that we can't explain and don't understand. God alone reserves all the rights and privileges to be, do, and know. We, on the other hand, reserve the right and privilege to trust Him, knowing that He knows what we don't. Jeremiah says it best in chapter 9:24, "...but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight." I find great comfort, peace, and strength as I allow myself to accept and rest in this truth.
Tonight I looked at a photo of my family from around the time we adopted our son, Christopher. He was about six months old at the time, our oldest son was almost two years old, and my wife and I never looked better. We were such a happy and beautiful family that I began telling people that we were 'the family that God built' because I knew He was the only One who could create such a family. And we were such a family.
We went on to become the poster family for the adoption agency that we went through to adopt our sons. From there, we spoke at churches and other functions in an effort to inspire other African-American families to do what we had done. We even participated in a pro-life rally in Montgomery, Alabama where I had the opportunity to sing and speak on the steps of the Capitol building! Our future was definitely bright and very promising, as I believed every word of Jeremiah 29:11. Once when our boys were older and we were expecting (finally!) our daughter, we received a prophetic word from the Lord that our entire family would be on stage ministering 'family.'
We also went on to experience our share of raising teenagers, and the challenges therein, along with our share of family dysfunction and malfunction. We seemed to be becoming a typical family, while trying to live godly as much as we knew how to. High school, football games, and dating made their way into our lives as well, along with behavioral issues, personality developments and conflicts, and bad habits, like smoking and sneaking out of the house. But it wasn't all bad. There was a lot to laugh about, which we did - a lot. And there is a lot to be proud of, which I am.
But who knew of the tragedy lurking around the corner waiting to strike our family? We certainly didn't. God did. And the only thing He told us, prophetically, was that there was a spirit of death in our home that we took authority over. Or did we? Could we? Looking back, we did everything we knew to do at that time, especially me being the strong man that Jesus spoke about in Matthew 12. I addressed the devil and my son on several occasions about their futures according to the scriptures. But who knew? God did. From the time we first laid eyes on him as a three month-old baby and my wife later had a 'burden' that we should adopt him.
If it is true that God knows the end from the beginning, and then in Ecclesiastes declares that the end of a thing is better than its beginning, then God must know something that we don't. And I think He chooses not to reveal it to us mostly because He knows that we will not believe and follow His plan or we will do like Peter and try to thwart it. How many times have we taken Him aside and rebuked Him because we didn't like what He said and thought it was the devil? Only to find, again like Peter, that WE get rebuked for playing the devil's advocate? A Christian songwriter once wrote,
"God is God and I am not.
I can only see a part of the picture He's painting.
God is God and I am man.
So I'll never understand it all, for only God is God."
This answers everything in our lives that we can't explain and don't understand. God alone reserves all the rights and privileges to be, do, and know. We, on the other hand, reserve the right and privilege to trust Him, knowing that He knows what we don't. Jeremiah says it best in chapter 9:24, "...but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight." I find great comfort, peace, and strength as I allow myself to accept and rest in this truth.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)