Daily Encourager – April 25, 2020
See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. – 1 John 3:1
There are so many ways in which we have been disoriented from the world these past many weeks. It’s hard to think about it, but tomorrow will mark the seventh Sunday we have not been able to gather in person. However, church is not the only way we have been displaced. For many every aspect of life have changed, whether displaced from work, from family, from everything. It’s safe to say that the world doesn’t look the same, nor will it ever again (I’ve started to come to terms with that idea).
However, we are reminded in the epistles by those who were forming the church, early in the days after the resurrection, that those who hold on to the hope of an eternal resurrected life in Jesus the Christ, they are no longer a part of this world that has kept on turning. It reminds of something I began to understand as a teenager, that as Christian we were to be considered resident aliens (a phrase that became the title of a book by two Methodist theologians, Stanley Hauerwas and William WIllimon). The idea is much older, however, it comes from understanding that we can no longer call this place our home, we don’t belong here on earth, we belong to a kingdom that eternal, that is in heaven. Yet, we continue to live in this place, and even more we begin to hear the words of the prayer taught to us as children ring ever true (…thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven…).
We begin to understand that we are here on earth as aliens, citizens of a heaven so far away that we long for, yet, while we are here we are heaven’s representatives. We are consulate, the ambassadors, we are the ones who will share that others might know the glory of heaven. Furthermore, John reminds us that the Father loves us so much, that we are not just ambassadors of heaven, but we are children of heaven. We are those who have an inheritance that is far greater than we deserve or could imagine. The world has changed, and we have become disoriented in it, but that matters not, because we never belonged in the world in the first place. This world can keep on changing, and we will adapt to it, continue to share the glory of the place we know is greater than this world can ever be this side of the new creation. Even great, is that we know the new creation is started already, in us.
May the world look at us, and be reminded of the love of God that desires to make it better each and every day. Amen.
Grace & Peace,
Sam