Tonight I’m reading in Luke 4 which is where Jesus was tempted of the devil. In verse 9 Satan invited Jesus to worship him with the reward being the gift of all that could be seen. Verse 10 Jesus strikes the home-run of the eons by putting Satan in his place.
What exists that wasn’t created by him?
There is a providential story that goes something like this - a person finds a watch out in a field miles and miles from any civilization. Taking it in her hands she wonders at this thing. She weighs it and notices the numbers, the little hand moving ever so slightly and looks around to see if the owner is perhaps hiding somewhere. Once convinced that the owner isn’t there and probably didn’t even know that he had lost the watch she purposes to take it with her. A couple of minutes more into her journey she comes to an abrupt spot. She pulls the watch out of her bag and unwrapped it from the folds of her extra shirt so as to keep it as safe as possible. She knew that, even though it wasn’t hers, it had fallen to her to care for it. She sat down hard and began to really examine every detail. It was exquisite. She pondered the how of it all. She got up and continued her journey with a steadfast goal of finding the owner. Not once did she realize that the owner had left it for her to find. That the owner had made it just for her. That the owner had wanted it to draw her closer to him. One day, when she had lived her life to her very best ability, then it was his deepest wish that she would leave it for someone else to find perhaps even watching to make sure it was found.
Isn’t that just like humans? We question everything. Of course that innate privilege was given to us by our Heavenly Parents without which we would not have a guidepost. We wouldn’t have a solid reminder imploring us to choose what is right much more often than choosing what is not right. We would think that everything we created received it’s genesis from within ourselves thereby discounting the need of God.
Once, many years ago, my daughter took me out west and it was a trip of a lifetime for me. Easter sunrise sitting alone in the desert because she needed more sleep than I did that particular day left the image branded into my being that we are created by God, for God, through God and we are to create by, for and through him so that when we arrive back home we can give a complete accounting of what we did with our time and talents. I’m imagining sitting at a banquet table with all of my other siblings excitedly telling one another of all they discovered while our heavenly parents look on with pride and a knowing that goes beyond the human mind’s ability to fully fathom.
There is another story that I often think of. There was a war raging and when has there not been one doing so? In this small village everyone worked in all daylight hours for the common good. One day an elderly man labored beside his grandson who was asking deep and probing questions not the least of which was the “why” of their efforts. The grandfather explained that folks must work in order to live, and must live in order to experience, and to experience in order to teach, and to teach so that they could go back home to be with our heavenly parents. The boy was distracted and cut his leg very badly. Blood gushed and the grandfather tied his sash around the boy’s wound and scooped him up to take him home. Others quickly came and offered to help which the grandfather declined with gratitude. They said “this is awful” the grandfather said “maybe yes, maybe no”. When he took the boy to his Mother’s house she flew out and quickly surmising the situation asked her Father “did you let him cut the grain even after you had promised me you wouldn’t?”. The old man said “Maybe yes, maybe no”. The Mother angrily pulled both him into the house and over to the only bed in the meager home. The mother was so upset all that she could do is fuss at her Father and then she commanded him to leave her sight asking “haven’t you done enough harm for one day?” to which he replied “maybe yes, maybe no”. With that the woman threw a clod at him and he left. Not too long after soldiers came into the field destroying all they could along the way and when they saw the old man looking up at them they hit him and told him that he better work or he would get hurt. They asked if he understood to which he replied “maybe yes, maybe no”. Then the soldiers kicked him so hard that he fell into the mud as the soldiers laughed. When he dared look up again they asked him “We have all the young men waiting over there, but they say that your Grandson is missing. Do you know where he is?”. The man said “maybe yes, maybe no”. The soldier kicked the old man over and over again until the commander came within sight who yelled for him to stop asking “if you kill them who will do the work? You?”. Then the commander reached out his hand and helped the man up out of the mud and asked if he would be alright to which the man replied “maybe yes, maybe no”. The commander apologized again and told the soldiers to prepare to leave with the boys that they did have and as they stormed off into the next battle the grandfather knew then why the grandson had been injured. Because of the injury he was not in the field and so was spared going off to war.
Asking “why?” seems to be a favorite thing amongst us humans as though knowing why we are about to be injured really matters and surpasses the abject need to be loved. This, if there is one, the secret to life - love today because you were loved yesterday so that those you love today can love others tommorow.
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