What are we missing?
In just one week Lorelai will start kindergarten. We have
been looking forward to this for a while, the full school day. When I thought
about going back to get my doctorate I always thought it would be best to do so
once Lorelai had started school. So here we are right on schedule. I got a
sudden ache today though for the little girl who comes home at lunchtime and
eats her favorite griller sandwich that her daddy made for her. Those days are
passing away she is growing up. I realized that I liked this point of view much
better then the send Lorelai to school so I can get my work done point of view.
I found myself praying that God would help me SEE the moments with my daughter
in the light of love rather than the darkness of duty.
In John chapter 3 Jesus has a conversation with a teacher of
Israel. Nicodemus comes to him in the middle of the night, cloaked in darkness
to ask him some questions about eternal life. Jesus tells him that in order to SEE
the kingdom of God he must be born again. Jesus tells him that he is testifying
to the things he has seen. Only Jesus has been to heaven and only he can
testify to the heavenly things. Unless we are born of the spirit we will be
unable to SEE the kingdom of God. Later in the chapter John the Baptist
reiterates this point, Jesus is testifying to what he has seen and heard. Jesus
is the one who is from above. Without believing in Jesus we will not SEE
eternal life.
Jesus goes on to tell Nicodemus that being born again, born
of the spirit, it to live in the light. He even defines judgment as rejecting
the light in order to live in the darkness. It is pretty hard to SEE in the
dark. This life is an awful lot like seeing in the dark. All we SEE is the
physical world around us, which is broken and diminished by sin. But Jesus is
testifying to that which is above this world, the world of light, eternal life.
Steven Curtis Chapman wrote a song called SEE after losing
his little girl. They found a piece of paper she had written on just before she
died and it had a flower drawn on it and the word SEE written on it. Steven
took comfort in the idea that there was a time coming when he would be able to
SEE. All he can see now are the tears of sorrow and the brokenness of this
world. But there is a time coming when he would SEE the earth made new, when he
would SEE his daughter again, because on February 20th his little
girl had chosen to believe in Jesus and live in the light.
While I also long for the day when I will SEE the kingdom of
God fully realized. I know that I want to start to SEE through the goodness of
God’s light now. I want to SEE the glowing moments I have with my daughter now.
I want to SEE the kingdom of light break through this present darkness at every
moment it possibly can in my life.
May we believe in Jesus today so that we can be born of the
spirit and SEE the kingdom now in glimpses and then in fullness.
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ReplyDeleteI tell my children that I miss who they were. The first time I did it, my daughter wanted an explanation - she deserved an explanation - she thought I was saying I didn't like who she was. So I went on. I told her I missed the glowing moments I had with my little three-year-old, but as much as I missed that little girl, I love experiencing the glowing moments I have with my same little girl now that she's ten, and I will miss my little ten-year-old when she becomes 17. But hope that we will continue to experience the glowing moments then too. May you and your family always experience glimpses of the kingdom in the presence of each other's company and never tire of the journey together.
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