A Brief Glimpse of Glory

  I am in a Bible Study that meets on Wednesday night at 8:00 pm. I like the study, but at times it gets to be a lot. What I mean by this is that the study requires you to memorize verses, read a lot, answer questions, etc which is almost too much at times when you think about all the other things I am required to do. I am sure each of you can relate. Everyone is so busy. However, I am always so glad that I get to be in the study once I am sitting down. It is worth it.

  The leader of our group is an elder in our church, but more than that he is a real person. He always tells us where he has failed. He doesn't have his work finished sometimes. He doesn't memorize the weekly verses sometimes because he hasn't had the time. His marriage isn't perfect. He has financial worries. All of this makes me respect him even more. The reason for this is because it helps me see that every age and every person has struggles, worries, bad times, etc, etc. His favorite topic is how vastly important it is to always know that Grace is the only reason anything good occurs in our life. Anything. If we have money, it is grace. If we don't, it is grace. If our marriage is strong that week..Grace. If it is struggling..it is Grace. If we are memorizing the verses, having quite times, praying....it is only Grace.

  I need to hear this. Often times, I  am so goal focused that I begin treating the Christian faith like my running, or fixing up my house, or my job. Something, "I", need to accomplish. "I" becomes the lone pronoun. I need to pray. I need to memorize scripture. I need to tithe. I need to behave in a certain manner. I need to love my wife, family, in-laws. This is all very depressing because I fail at all of it ALL the time. I am only really good at one thing and that is sinning and doing what I don't really want to do, but in truth it is exactly what I want to do.

 This brings me to my favorite part of my Bible study...it makes me think. Every week, I leave and have learned so much. I am convicted. I am relieved. But every time, it causes me to think. And lately, it has made me think about the reason for this post. I have become so convinced that we must never try to separate Christian beliefs from the world around us. What I mean by this is that I feel like when we try to make the Christian faith about things not on earth, then it is quick to lose track of. When I think about the Christ's relationship to the Church, it can he hard to understand, but not when I think about it like marriage because I have seen a marriage and am married. I can think about God as Father because I have a father. I can think about Christ as the Son because I am a son. I get the Parable of the Sower because I have grown something from a seed. I understand my need to be dependent upon Christ as a child. I am surrounded by needy kids all day. I can understand a deer panting for water because I have seen it in real life. When I read the Bible it is full of images on/from Earth. I just think that we spend so much time trying to make the doctrines of Christianity so lofty that we forget that most of the parables of Christ were agrarian in nature. We forget that God created all living things on earth and thought they were good. We forget that mankind is made in the image of God. We forget the verses about Christ making all things new and that when Christ returns there will be a new heaven and EARTH.

  And this brings me to the title of this post, A Glimpse of Glory. I titled it this because my Bible study was talking about glory and we had a question asking us to describe glory. All of us did the same thing...there was a throne room, singing angels, jewels, bright lights, etc, etc. My study's leader described something different. He described a Fall dove hunt when the sun shines down on the winter wheat and makes it seemingly dance and sparkle, and the cool breeze is blowing, and your dog is hunting just right, and you feel like life could get no more beautiful or perfect. He said that was a brief glimpse of glory. I loved it because I haven't seen too much of the other stuff, the lofty items, but I have felt the same way numerous times. I now love thinking about those brief moments when it seems like life cannot get any better. That those are small glimpses into what real Glory is. That when I am running and watch the full moon rise over the Ocmulgee river that that is what Glory is. That when I have finished working in my yard and can't move because I am so sore and look out at the night light's reflection on the St. Augustine grass that is so cool to my feet. This is Glory. This is what is being redeemed. When I sit at my dining room table full of good, hot food and am laughing so hard my stomach hurts, that this is a brief glimpse into heaven and glory. This is what is being redeemed. This makes the task so much larger. I know what the world is like. I see the weeds in my lawn. I know how expensive the food was and how hard I had to work to get it. This makes the Redeemer seem even larger because it is not the heavens that are being redeemed. It is this earth and all that dwells in it that have been groaning in pain ever since Adam and Eve sinned the first time. It is the whole sum of all of these brief moments being sewn together and being made perfect. It is the whole of Glory and Christ has done it all through the Father.



 

Basking in a brief glimpse of glory watching my dogs play with their whole heart on the beach and not wanting the day to end because for a very brief moment everything is perfect,
   David