Blog: God in Blood
I think some of us see a few seconds of God when we bleed. We need some injection, have some health issue. A scare, an emergency; a hammer hits our thumb or we catch our kid’s flying elbow drop with our eyebrow. Could even be routine human maintenance, maybe working out. One day, for some reason, it just BURNS to the point where we stop and listen to the pain. It hurts so loudly that we have to. Then we hear it, something beyond our racing thoughts. Our endless stream of anxiety-spewing fears.
Something within that sting, that flash of bright pain, gets our attention. We see beyond ourselves. It’s uncomfortable, sure, but it’s real.
We live in a distraction culture. Nothing hurts us more than our constant stressing. Our fears about the sky falling, this new flavor of the world ending. “No, but it’s real this time,” we say. Sure, it could be. Yet when we kick a door’s corner or slip down a single stair on a long stairwell, we see it. The truth.
Our mortality speaks, too. The reality that we all must someday meet the meat grinder. Weigh down the funeral pyre. There, God waits, in some more easily-seen or readily-accepted form than we normally see, with eyes open wide in shock. Those glimpses, little pains, can save us from greater ones, yeah. We see because we cannot look away, we cannot distract from real pain, real life happening to us, LIVE. Yet what of God?
Depends on what you believe, or want to believe in. Who you pray to, why you pray. Do you see the end more clearly than those who don’t, can’t? That beyond, not far at all, but near, here? There’s another place than here, and it’s ruled by another being than humans. I think… I know… it’s God. It’s the author of love, craftsman of good sex, your favorite meal. Master of the kind word, warm hug, the One who died for all. It’s God, a truly divisive and fight-inducing term. It’s also Jesus, my best Friend, the only one who’s read my life, like a book, from cover to cover. Knowing every pain, seeing every mistake and good that’s come of me being alive.
He waits, for all of us. Not in buildings, in seas of green grass outside of the nearest church to you. He’s right there, eyes full of love and want for you to come home. Believe. See what’s really there, what’s really important. It’s no surprise, it’s not likely to be found on your phone or in your panicked thoughts.
Those lies aren’t answers.
His eyes, though, His gaze into your YOU, the only YOU that you really are… He knows that person. He loved them enough to put on flesh, like a costume, and die for you and me. Then He went home, not to bail on us, but to make a special spot for us, right beside His.
Don’t be afraid of men and their machines. Fear the maker of man, who loves you whole, but hates what we’ve created with our mistakes. The web of lies and selfishness that’s poisoned our souls, the souls of our best friends, loved ones. The secrets we hide, the pains we smile while causing. Our realities are not what we show other humans, but God’s immune to lies. So why try? He knows all, sees all, and LOVES us anyway. What grand, master-level love? One we cannot comprehend.
God loves you. He sent Jesus, a part of Himself, to die in our place, for our mistakes. All of them, the hidden and confessed. Nothing will change that, bullets or bombs, failures or huge wins. He still loves, no matter what we win or lose at. Then, when Jesus went home to make a place for us, He sent the Holy Spirit to dwell inside those who believe, who choose Christ over themselves. I’m honored to know this idea personally, to live that life, accompanied by Jesus’ love and spirit.
I wish you would, too. Find the joy in being known, SAVED. We have all the time in the world, until we don’t.
Good talk.
