A God not of Stone
We spent ten days exploring Egypt. It was an incredible experience. We visited many spectacular temples, pyramids, and palaces, all built because of a dedication to a list of gods so long one could barely keep up. Truly, it was fascinating. The time and workmanship that went into each of these structures is almost unimaginable when you consider the lack of tools available to the ancient Egyptians. Yet, create they did.
It begs the question why? Why would anyone dedicate their entire life to creating something to someone so vague and confusing that after ten days we still confused the gods and kings?
The ancient Egyptians firmly believed that life on earth was short and unworthy compared to the glorious afterlife the gods promised them. On walls so high it hurt our necks to look up, picture after picture depicted kings and queens giving grains, animals, perfume, wine, and on and on to the gods. Everyone understood the assignment–the more gifts given to a god, they better the chance is obtaining a perfect spot in the afterlife.
The entire time, I kept having three thoughts.
Perhaps we should spend more time preparing for our afterlife. They weren’t in err thinking there’s value in preparing for eternity. We, often, spent our time preparing for our life here, on earth. Living on this earth requires a certain amount of that for sustainability, but perhaps we’re a little unbalanced. The ancient Egyptians had the right idea, it was just the wrong direction. They were confused about who could secure their spot in the afterlife. Right? There certainly would be nothing wrong, and everything right, about spending more of our days setting on sites on our eternal home, instead of our earthly home. Not in the way of shrines, temples, or stone statues, but in our prayer life, our study of scripture and our actions toward others. All the things that work on our inner selves to make us more Christlike and less worldlike (is that a word?).
I am so grateful we don’t serve a God whose sees us with eyes of stone. Instead, we lovingly serve a God who, as Hagar discovered, sees us, with real eyes. With eyes that walked this earth and grieved the destruction of mankind. With a heart that had a mother to love and brothers to argue with. With arms that held the sick and comforted the brokenhearted. With real feelings that knew our innermost thoughts. That’s our God. He was real yesterday. He’s with us today. And He will be with us in eternity. He’s more than a drawing on a wall. He’s real.
Again, wanting to do the things that God wants us to do is not a bad thing, but feeling like we HAVE Do to them to ensure our place in heaven is a bad thing. Titus 3.4 gives us these beautiful words: “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.” God is so good, isn’t He? He doesn’t want our grain and perfume and animals; He wants our heart. There is nothing we can do to ensure our spot in heaven; we already have a place waiting for us. All the things we do–the good deeds, the prayers, the songs of praise—are all done, not to get us to Heaven, but because we’re already going there. It’s our celebration. It’s our thank you. It’s our honor to praise the one who eagerly awaits us and prepares a place for us. WOW! How cool is that?
This Christmas season let’s remember all of it! God’s glorious creations. Jesus’s birth and life and death. The holy spirits constant work with us. All of it!
Merry Christmas, Chrys
