It is vital that we know ourselves to be beloved. Without that basic affirmation we cannot fully grow and develop as whole and healthy persons. Because each human being is unique we are each entitled to a sense of being special.It is also important to realize that just because we are beloved does not mean that others are not also beloved. Just because we are special does not mean that others are not also special.
For someone else to be unique, precious, and beloved is not to lessen my status in those categories. There is enough, especially of divine love, to go around.
Amos proclaims this with ferocity to God’s chosen people of Israel:
Are you not like the Ethiopians to me, O people of Israel? says the Lord. Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir? (Amos 9:7)
What a shock to hear that God has acted redemptively toward others!How sobering.
What a readjustment of worldview.
God rescues and leads people outside of the covenant we know.
God saves in ways beyond the ones we know.
God loves them too.
Just when we were so very busy making sure only our kind, the right kind, the God-approved kind could get in the doors, too. Damn! (Don’t you hate when God messes with our schemes?)
“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 23:13a)
You would think Jesus would be even more careful than we about membership requirements.
Evidently he is not.
Our anxiety rises when things are not done as we expect or intend. Out of our anxiety we become defensive. In our defensiveness we often become angry.Refrain from anger, leave rage alone;
do not fret yourself; it leads only to evil. (Psalm 37:9)
What about those evildoers, the wicked who do not live as God wants them to?
Do not fret yourself because of evildoers;
do not be jealous of those who do wrong. (Psalm 37:1)
But, Lord, what about those queers taking over the Church? Those schismatics rending Christ’s body? Those [fill in the blank according to your own definition of evildoer]?
Do not fret yourself over the one who prospers,
the one who succeeds in evil schemes. (Psalm 37:8)
But, but… [sputter]
Take delight in the LORD,
and he shall give you your heart's desire.
Be still before the LORD
and wait patiently for him. (Psalm 37:4, 7)
And thus we find ourselves in Advent: the still time, the waiting time.
--the BB
4 comments:
I. Love. This.
We are all beloved, exactly as we are. Every human being. Every rock, tree, and flower. God has called us good.
We are all special. We are all cherished, in all of our wonderfulness, all of our wackiness--because our Creator made us who we are.
There is a deep liberation in that. We don't have to do anything, but love and let ourselves be loved, and let everyone else be loved as well.
I can't make it not sound cliche--I mean, on a superficial level of course I know this. But the truth of it is amazing to me.
Thank you. That's a gorgeous photo, too.
Brilliant, Paul, just beautiful. "Take delight in the LORD, / and he shall give you your heart's desire. / Be still before the LORD / and wait patiently for him." Amen!
Thank you, truly...
Mike
Nothing brilliant about quoting the Psalms, Mike, but happy to be of service. Now, it's learning over and over again to actually wait upon God. There's the trick.
Ah, but it's where you quote 'em that does it, Paul. My superlatives belonged to the rest of the post. Guess I should have put in a
paragraph
there to make it clear ;-)
But as you say, it's the learning it that counts. Strange, this Advent that seems much clearer somehow than before...
Mike
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