I continue to be amazed at God’s ruthless work in my life, yet I am thrilled at my growing confidence that He will not leave me alone, and does in fact intend to finish the work He started in me, maybe even long ago in my ancestors? Growing older is fascinating, as one accumulates experience with this inexhaustible God, what a gift.
Who is this one who created the galaxies, some 14 billion light years across and then crucified by “His own” on one of the smaller globes created by Him? Was the crucified one truly the Messiah of Israel, the Son of God? Set apart before creation as caretaker of the King’s vineyard, only to be brutalized by those blinded by the lie? Was this crucified one, assigned the death of a fool on Earth, but was truly God Himself, “the Word become flesh”? Was He simply referenced as the son of God,the way all Kings were at that time, when in fact He was Yahweh? Now by His choice, forever participating in a fleshly garment like that of His own creation? If He was God, did this resurrected one, veiled in human flesh, set off some “transmutation” of creation, where death no more reigns, and in fact His Kingdom is now among us? Is He, as the scriptures declare, now “seated on the right hand of the Father”? How is He both there and here, both Son and God, both man and Spirit?
You can see that I ponder a lot!
This week, I was reviewing John Polkinghorne’s Belief in God in an Age of Science. In my reading, I became even more intrigued with this God-man, Jesus; hearing this Cambridge Physicist tell his very ambivalent story about light, his insights reflecting the complexities in the heavens, which “declare the glory of God.”
As Polkinghorne connected physics with theology, he parallels (at least I construed) the evolution of scientific knowledge, with the revelation that comes with one’s spiritual journey; which at my ripe age, I am finding to be true. He cites (p.29):
“Moments of radical revision in which new phenomena lead to new insights…;”
“Periods of confusion in which old and new ideas stand side by side in unresolved tension with each other…;”
“Moments of new synthesis and understanding, in which a theory is revealed capable of satisfactorily explaining the new phenomena in a convincing and comprehensive way…;”
“A continuing wrestling with unresolved problems, essential for a total understanding of the new theory…;”
“Realisations (sic) that the new theory has deep implications of a kind unanticipated when I was first conceived…;”
Polkinghorne then goes on to illustrate with our expanding understanding of light. Once thought by the ancient world to have been emitted from the human eye, in order that one might see; the more modern understanding then came to be that light was a reflection from the Sun; followed by the idea of electromagnetic waves, the idea of particles, then particles that traveled in waves (photons) and so own.
In fact, long debate occurred between each period of thought, from that ancient speculation to the postulations by Huygens, Newton, Einstein, Pauli; and the conversation continues to this very day.
Some things are beyond finding out!
Could God, with the words, “let there be light,” have laid out a conundrum for the brightest of men, as well as a pattern for their study, so that not only physical light from the Sun, but “The Light” of revelation from “the Son”, also offering clues to this God we cannot see, to this mind that cannot grasp, yet with hearts that long to believe?
Our only tangible item for faith, the man born of a virgin, made this statement, “If you have seen me you have seen the Father.” Later, with hands spread across a tree, Christ hung between two thieves, manifesting the reality of love offered by this once Invisible One; and, by His suffering, extended grace to all freely, and forever canceled death, Hell and the grave!!
As I edit this material on this January 12, 2011, I aspire to be as was spoken of Oswald Chambers by his wife, citing a quote by Robert Murray McCheyne. “Men return again and again to the few who have mastered the spiritual secret, whose life has been hid with Christ in God. These are of the old time religion, hung to the nails of the Cross.”
Oh, to know Him!