Last week I noticed something startling … grass.
When I first saw it it was like I had
forgotten that under ALL that snow there was something other than snow.
That in fact I would eventually see it.
And then one day driving by a traffic island
something green caught my eye and I almost got in an accident.
It was so unexpected.
Like after three short, yet seemingly
endless, months I had all but written off the possibility that there could be
anything but white, cold, wet ground beneath my feet. But it had been there the
whole time and what is more given the number of winter to spring transitions I
have weathered I should not have been shocked by the fact that snow eventually
gives way to what lies beneath.
This made me consider how easily we come to accept things, even things we do not like, when we are made to live with them over a period of time.
Like the myriad of injustices and
inequalities in this world.
They have
existed for so long we may have not even considered that there could be another
way of living, another, God-ordained, possibility for personal and social
order.
One that doesn’t exploit the poor
in favor of the rich. One that doesn’t divide people by race, ethnicity or income.
One that doesn’t leave the most
vulnerable at the mercy of unfair systems.
One that doesn’t trample the weak and extol the greedy.
What if we stop accepting things the way they are and start remembering that this world was created, intended, purposed to be very different.
That in fact after humanity shattered Eden and
broke the perfection which God planned for us all Christ came and redeemed the
way for us.
So now though we live in a
world filled with snow and cold we, as believers, know it is meant to be, is
possible for it to be, different.
Over and over again in scripture we are reminded of the ways things were intended to be when we are told to do justice (Micah 6:8), seek justice (Isaiah 1:17), that the Lord loves justice (Psalm 33:5, 37:28), that the Lord desires justice more than sacrifice (Proverbs 21:3) and fasting (Isaiah 58:6), that we serve a God of justice (Isaiah 30:18).
Humanity, through Adam and Eve broke the
intended harmony in which the world was created and we are called and empowered
through Christ to restore it.
We should not
get so lost in what is, the inequities and injustices that parade through our
newsfeeds and break our hearts that we forget we serve the God of the universe
who calls us to not only look beyond to what could be but to be a part of that
which what brings it about.
Happy Easter!
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