And that is one thing God has been teaching me this semester-- His beauty and his glory and all that He is. Oh my, I cannot bear to look at the world, at earthly things and fleeting things and just things. They become vain to me and right before my eyes everything turns to nothing compared to this new glory that has been revealed to me. I see it everywhere. And I want to forever live in the search for more of this glory.
The world is such a juxtaposed place. If you know me, you know that juxtaposition is one of my favorite literary terms ever and I cannot believe I just wrote this sentence. But it is true. Juxtaposition means the act of placing close together or side by side, especially for contrast. Think about it. Think about the stark contrast.
This is about to blow your mind.
God, the ultimate artist, carves this earth with His hand, this beautiful earth with clouds stretched across the sky and canyons that swallow even the largest person whole and trees that are skillfully placed on the perfect hill so that the dynamics of vertical to horizontal effectively display the beauty of its Creator even in just one passing glance. He spoke it. He spoke grass so green that it compels us to run over it, to grab it, smell it, pull it, lie in it and look at the skies. Skies that burst into colors that we could never dream of recreating, no matter how many paints we squirt and mix together, the kind of colors that make your heart melt on the drive home from a long day at work. Mountains that lay plastered against the sky only to enhance the effects of their boldness and solidity. Their heights scream at us. The ocean, with waters that engulf us, depth that deepens our very souls and even our heaviest burdens in those moments seem to look like the smallest little issue compared to the vastness of it all. We get lost in it and its stillness with simultaneous perseverance represented through the aggressiveness of the waves and that is what we see. These creations were made to bring about these reactions in us. They were not just made to look at. All this took some thought. This world contains intricate detail that is strategically developed to reveal to us the Creator's glory in the best and clearest possible way. And we miss it every day.
And then we see us. These broken and fragile beings, so small that even words are too long to describe our state. We know nothing and yet we think we know everything and even that makes us smaller and smaller. It all adds up onto us. We consistently reject and deny our Savior time after time and we blatantly disobey the very one who made us and saved us. We look at this Artist's creations and spit at them, toss them aside. We long for other things, we throw ourselves at people, items that we were not created for. We have no strength in us and no fight in us and no power in us and the only way we are even living and breathing is because of someone else, some other power. We have done nothing on our own and yet we try to do everything on our own. We are wicked. We are vile. We are stained. We are hypocrites, skeptics, cynics. We are sinners. We are at the mercy of God above. And what a mercy it is.
So God placed us, these barbaric creatures described above, on this wonderfully made earth. It makes us seem even smaller and even more like just dust and ashes when we zoom out and see these little black dots on this absolutely breathtaking canvas. How did we get here? Dirty and small and broken people. Spotless and massive and beautiful earth. He placed us here to greater display His glory. How juxtaposed we are.
Praise be to the Lord Almighty!
But then there is this other viewpoint. This paradoxical explanation that also persists to display the glory of God. Because God is really good at making things that seem to make no sense make sense.
Here we are. Redeemed and made complete and alive in Christ. Our sins washed away and he grabs our hands at the well and gently helps us up and tells us that He knows all the things that we have done but we are made new. He makes us in His image. He cleanses us of every impurity, even the ones hidden deep within ourselves, the ones that our closest friends and relatives either don't know about us, or see and despise in us. And He sees those things in us and loves us anyway. He wrecks the walls of pride and guilt and shame and all the ugly, ugly things about us and rebuilds us in splendor and glory and purity. He makes us, the vilest of all the creatures, into beautiful things. He uses us, totally undeserving, to display His mercy and His love. He washes away our sin with the blood of Jesus Christ. He constantly resurrects us and shakes off our dust and makes us beautiful. He makes us beautiful. He pushes our brokenness aside and makes us whole again. And He does this day after day after day.
And he sends us out. Into this world. This world full of sin and materialism and idolatry and greed. This world full of war and suffering and pain and so much distortion that even the prettiest things of this world are hidden deceits of the devil himself. No one is safe. Mass chaos and destruction fill the earth. Hate is more real than love and even the true love that does exists stands firm under conditions and reciprocation and selfishness. Fear overshadows us and the ghosts of timidity haunt us and now on this earth we are told to live and love through tolerance and acceptance which are really synonymous for passivity and idleness. Everything is messed up. Everything is masked or skewed or taken out of context. People resent people. People resent God. People resent people resenting God, so they keep Him to themselves. The Spirit is stifled, smothered and even worship is questioned for its haughtiness or non-traditionalism. Genuineness and sincerity are ambiguous. Brothers and sisters become our cynics and skeptics. Everything is wrong. We can't escape it.
New people. Bright with His light, shining in the splendor of His majestic presence in our very souls. This earth. Loud with its vanity, taunting us with the trickery of deceit ingrained in its very core. There must be a reason we were here. He placed us here to display His glory. How juxtaposed we are.
We are aliens here. Just look at the contrast.
In both of these views, this thing I call the "Double Juxtaposition" or "The Juxtaposition Paradox" or "The Juxtaparadox" (actually, I just made all of those terms up)...anyway. In each of these views, we are not perfect. We are dirty sinners, but we are made beautiful in Christ. We were created to be that way. We are created to do those things, to submit ourselves to the Creator, and in each different perspective, that is how His glory will be maximized.
No matter which way you look at it, His glory is to be revealed through us. That is why we live. Think about that.
LMB
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