of men and angels

It's the 8th. And seeing as it's become somewhat of a trend, I thought I'd update today with some stuff I've been mulling over.

This past year my theology underwent something akin to a Jughead detonation (yup that's a LOST reference - the first of many to be sure) that left me trying to grasp at pieces of fragmented truth with which I could recreate somewhat of a foundation for what I believe. It's been unsettling but in a really good way. One truth survived all this restructuring and proved to serve as a beautiful frame for where all this is heading: Love. That God is love. And that He loves me. And everyone. And He uses us to be that love to each other. And that this love is most beautifully communicated in the person, words, and sacrifice of Jesus.

Recently I was encouraged (by a LOST theorizing columnist...who says God can't work thru pop culture??) to go read the story of Jacob's ladder in Gen. 28. Assuming you are like me and can't quite remember the details: Jacob falls asleep, has this dream about a stairway (ladder) that comes down from heaven with angels descending and ascending and God standing at the top telling Jacob that He will be with him wherever he goes and will continue to bless him and his family thru the covenant He first made with Abraham. Jacob wakes up, incredulous that he has encountered God in an ordinary place that's not a tabernacle or mountain top or somewhere that's already been deemed holy and says, "surely the Lord is in this place and I was not aware."

I love this story. Despite all my present unanswered questions and uncertainties, I believe that the love that Jesus talks about - selfless love, the kind of love that loves others not because they love back, but at the risk it will never be returned, the kind of love that He's poured out on us and given us a chance to do the same for others - I believe that when that kind of love is at work, the kingdom of heaven touches earth with the bottom wrung of its transcendent ladder, and the distance between here and there is smaller, and people are lifted above their pain and brokenness, and are able to catch a glimpse of glory.

I so identify with Jacob and his obtuseness to the fact that God is here, right now in the midst of wherever we are, pouring over us with love. And we have this incredible opportunity with every interaction to be that love for somebody. To help them experience the kingdom of heaven the Jesus preaches about, that is so much more than the present realities we've all settled and chosen to live in. How exciting is that? He allows us, no calls us, to be a part of His movement; reconciling creation, one person at a time, back to Himself.

"If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal..."