I was talking to someone recently about who we are, and how we relate to God. We are the great mystery of God; are we not? Are we not a partial abridgment of the whole universe? We are the Miranda Dei Opus; God’s workmanship, a living emblem and hieroglyphic of eternity and time and love. Man is the viceregent of God’s world. We are the rebel in His world, as well as the object of His love. The glory and the shame. A novelty and the chaos. A cloaca of uncertainty and error. Truthfully; the image of God is there, albeit so marred that only Christ can render it fully restored.
Let’s be honest now; mankind is a make-believe animal; never so truly himself as when he is throwing stones at the One who raised him up from dust. We are not the slightest bit aware of the difference between how things are, and how they ought to be. We’re equally incapable of seeing the nothingness from which we have emerged, and the infinity in which we are engulfed. But in this and despite all this: our humanity is, and will always be tied to God’s glory. We are spiritual being having a human experience, not the other other way around. We are lumps of mud dumped into a cool, pure brook. Vessels of honor and shards of destruction. Objects of God’s wrath created for good works. We are a mess. We are a miserable, wretched mess.
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us…”
September 10th, 2011 at 5:14 am
I have missed your writing like this. It’s beautiful.