Opus 2020-275: Crickets

I am not a big reader of Max Lucado.  I have now read two of his books and in another ten years I might be ready for another.  In my latest, In the Grip of Grace he writes an analogy using a cricket.  He was picturing how a cricket that he had seen in the church sanctuary would view the world.  At one point he wrote,

“Perhaps the best question is, who does a cricket worship?  Does he acknowledge that there was a hand behind the building....Does he assume that since he has never seen the builder there was no builder?” p. 26, emphasis in original

He then goes on to make an application to human beings and the large group that deny God.  He calls them hedonists.  I never thought of the word in that way, but there it is.

The way these people deny God is not by saying no gods exist.  The problem is they cannot envision God.  When I say they can’t envision God, I don’t mean they can’t imagine a god.  They are good at that, but man-imagined gods tend to be limited by our vision.  As a general rule pagan gods are just people on steroids.  What they can’t comprehend is the God of the Bible.

I say this after reading a lot of science fiction/fantasy where people try all their ideas about gods.  Most of the results are little more than entities with strange powers and weird ideas about right and wrong.  They can be injured and even die.  Usually, if you read carefully, you find that they are the kind of being that the author would become if they had the ability to morph.  All of their fantasies get played out.

We saw this in ancient Greek and Roman mythology.  The gods were just spoiled children in adult bodies with some kind of super power.  They bickered and got involved sexually with anything that caught their eye.  They lied and cheated.  They were a lot like politicians today.

The God of the Bible is almost beyond our comprehension.  What do I mean, “He is beyond our comprehension”?  We cannot understand infinity, let alone holiness.  We cannot understand the kind of love that is driven toward the incarnation and the cross.  I have not been able to find the quote so I will paraphrase and make no accusations of the writer but a Christian who was a scientist said that the thing that drew him to the God of the Bible was the way in which understanding Him required a grasp of multi-dimensional space and even that wasn’t enough.  He said that in his dipping into other religions he found no ideas that were big enough to come from beyond the human mind but the Bible was different.

I worship a God that is so far beyond me that He has no problem balancing the creation of the universe with being aware of my every thought.  He is God, not a human construct.

Lucado, Max.  In the Grip of Grace.  Dallas:  Word Publishing, 1996.

homo unius libri

Opus 2011-261, A Snapshot of Fatherhood

I decided to read a chapter of Max Lucado yesterday morning and I am glad I did.  He was using his creativity to imagine what the angel Gabriel went through when he was sent to announce the coming birth to Mary.  When he got to Joseph it came alive for me.

        “And speaking of Joe - what does this fellow know?  Might as well be a weaver in Spain or a cobbler in Greece.  He’s a carpenter.  Look at him over there, sawdust in his beard and nail apron around his waist.  You’re telling me God is going to have dinner every night with him?  Your telling me the source of wisdom is going to call this guy ‘Dad’?  You’re telling me a common laborer is going to be charged with giving food to God?
        “What if he gets laid off?
        “What if he gets cranky”?, When God Whispers Your Name, p. 57

I could not help getting a picture of my father in a nail apron.  He usually had cement dust instead of sawdust, but the picture was too real.  Memories came back.

As a youth in the depression he helped support his family working on farms and general labor.  He worked as a UPS driver and in a foundry.  He eventually bought a pick-up and began to work for himself, first hauling trash and then learning to do concrete work.  He eventually earned his general contractors license.  He never got rich or saved a lot of money.  He never outgrew his blue-collar, working class roots.

And what a father he was!  He raised four boys who have all learned to serve the Lord and be productive members of society.  We came up through the radical 60's.  We grew beards and avoided the barber.  We also grew integrity and avoided booze and drugs.  How many men have that kind of record?

He must have been a lot like Joseph.  Jesus had an earthly father much like mine.  I also think his example is why I have a healthy view of God as father.

A reality of the incarnation was that Almighty God became man.  He went through what we went through.  Think about that next time you start to feel like life is getting hard.

    Man of Sorrows, What a Name
    For the Son of God who came,
    Ruined sinners to reclaim.
    Hallelujah!  What a Savior.

I need to take the book back to the library today, but Jesus is on permanent loan.

homo unius libri