BREATH OF LIFE

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground,

and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,

and man became a living being ...

Genesis 2:7

What is life? It is a breath. A Divine breath, kept not to itself, but passed into lifelessness, and upon its wings living begins.

Paul tells us in Colossians that Jesus holds all things together. That includes maintaining the very breath of God within me, giving me life, moment by moment … heartbeat by heartbeat.

Can I capture that picture … even for a instant? God breathing into me. Talk about life-giving CPR. There is nothing like it.

Notice, God didn’t simply blow onto the man fashioned by His own hand, onto his outward form. No. He breathed into a space specially designed to hold that essence of Himself. Tented in clay though it may have been, it still was an inward work, even from the very beginning.

God formed man, like a potter forms a vessel, by squeezed His creation into His desired shape. I love this concept. God could have chosen simply to speak man into existence, as He did the rest of creation. But God’s desire for relationship becomes visible even here. That desire to touch, to be part of, to invest Himself into the product of His love. Not a single hint at indifference can be seen in man’s creation; rather it reveals an ongoing effort, denoting a plan, a desired destination for Himself and His creation.

Beauty resides in the continuing truth that nothing has changed. He who is the same yesterday, today and forever, doesn’t simply speak things into my life. He continues to invest Himself into my life … touching … molding … pruning … holding … encouraging … breathing His life into me daily … whatever it takes to maintain relationship. His mercies and compassion towards me, towards His creation, are still new every morning.

MERCY MISTS

MERCY MISTS

… a mist went up from the earth …

It’s been a long time. But these words, and an awe-filled conversation with my daughter, bring back to this heart a remembrance. A remembrance of God’s provision showing itself on the very first pages of history.

My children were raised in the arid lands of southern California, where, more often than not, rain remains a stranger. Although man has come in and attempted to create an Eden, left on its own the land is desert. Not always displayed in sand and cacti. But rain deprived, the floodgates of heaven locked tight overhead.

The first time I saw it I knew fear. In the early morning hours, my car overflowing with four small children, I turned a corner only to discover ourselves surrounded by smoke. It billowed thickly all around us, rising up from the earth. Heart pounding, I searched for flames. It took several heartbeats to accept their absence. Several more heartbeats to accept the smoke’s source.

Now, twenty years later, the same unbelievable awe traveled across phone lines to stir a forgotten memory. My daughter’s return home from college for Christmas had hit a snag, delaying her arrival. Car trouble. So instead of visiting face to face, I now held a phone to my ear a day later hearing she was on her way, at last, heading towards the center of town to catch the highway home. Before she could hang up her cell phone I heard her gasp, a sharp edge entering her voice.

“Mom, there’s thick smoke just ahead. All over. It’s surrounding everything.”

“Can you see any flames? Where are they coming from?“I can’t see any flames yet, but it looks like a war zone … like the entire downtown is on fire!”

“Do you hear any sirens?”

“Not yet … but the smoke’s so thick.”

“Maybe you had better turn around.”

“I can’t believe it!” Her voice, incredulous, starts my own heart to pounding.

“It’s not smoke, Mom! No need to worry. There’s no fire. This is just … just awesome! I can hardly believe what I’m seeing!”

“What is it?”

“Everywhere I look enormous curtains of mist … rising up out of the ground. I wish I had my camera, Mom! It’s simply incredible.”

… but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground …

Most days I fail to lay hold of the eternal eyesight I daily long for … eyesight that will enable me to gain a picture of God … of His mercy … of His grace. But every once in a while He allows me a peek that is inescapable. That picture gains its focus in the words preceding. Before … before any plant … before any herb … and there was no man … but …

Maybe the profoundness of God’s provision strikes me here because of the oft times aridness of my own journey … those seasons when the heavens seem shut up, locked against my need, my want. I’ve forgotten that God’s provision was set in motion way before my need knew life. He surrounds me … all the time. Wherever I place my foot, He is already there, and His sufficiency waters the whole face of my ground.

I’ve seen it. It steals my breath. It leaves me mesmerized … gaping in wonder.

I need that reminder this morning. Surrounded by the needs of my children. Surrounded by my own needs. From where I stand, each and every one as varied as the day is long, each seemingly insurmountable … it’s easy to forget the awesomeness of God’s sufficiency.

It is my history with Him. It is your history. For His story, interwoven into the fabric of our being, is the story of God’s perpetual provision for our every need. A provision set in motion before we even know our need. And it’s a provision not lacking in any measure … a provision rising like a mist from the ground watering the whole face of the earth.

LIGHT & DARKNESS

It’s interesting … light … darkness … from the very beginning existed conflict between the two. One sided, without a doubt. Darkness doing all the battling. Light’s very presence vanquishes battle, for Light can’t be fought against. Light’s mere presence casts out darkness … darkness in the universe … darkness in the soul, in the heart of man. Light can’t be vanquished, can’t be subdued, can’t be contained. It remains a ‘revealer.’ A revealer of intents. A revealer of the human condition. A revealer of all that is not light. While darkness attempts to disguise, light lays bare. Light is Truth. Darkness? Every lie conceived while attempting to disguise itself as ‘light.’

Is it any wonder that Satan couldn’t remain in the Kingdom where Light reigned? Thus, the utter irony. Refusing to dwell in Light, to abide with Light, to be consumed by Light, Satan disguises himself as the angel of light.

John the apostle reveals that God is Light, and that in God there is no darkness at all. Darkness, therefore, in all its varying degrees, is the antithesis of God.



Almighty God, strewn throughout this clay, seeds of darkness reside ... each one, at emnity with You. May Your Word be a cleansing spotlight within my life, revealing each speck that hides a pure reflection of You. Cleanse me, that Your light may shine brightly, within and without my life. Amen!

BEGINNINGS

JOHN 1:1-5 & GENESIS 1

In the beginning … once upon a time … in a time long, long ago … regardless of the tale needing told, before it all, stood God ‘living’ in relationship. How do I know? It lies evident in the Word. Love expressed. John tells me, “ In the beginning was the Word.”

Love existed to pour itself out upon the beloved. Love can’t live in solitude, in isolation. Love necessitates one to give love to … to communicate that love … and Jesus was that expression of Love, to the universe, to man.

From the very beginning of beginnings a Word spoke. Colossians 1:6 reveals Jesus created all things and holds all things together. (Ephesians 3:9 … God Who created all things in Jesus Christ). Speaking to His disciples, Jesus explains that the words He speaks are His Fathers words, the words He first hears His Father speaking, He in turn then speaks them, to me. Relationship … that weaving together in order to bless and be blessed … lay at the heart of all things from the very beginning. The expression of that love found voice, and thereby life, and that life brought light that couldn’t be overcome by darkness, no matter how dark the darkness, or how great its effort to snuff out and deny the light.

What does that reveal to me? Many thing, but the most important for me at this moment is really quite basic and utterly simple. The emptiness I so often feel is a relationship issue. Put more accurately, my sense of emptiness reflects a lack of relationship in my life. Or should I say in the shell of this mortal frame. For the truth is there is no life apart from relationship. Existence, maybe; but not life. And God intends me to have life, and to have it abundantly.

I’m not simply referring to lack of human relationship. My relationship with God right now is weak and wavering. Not on His part; but on mine. God created me for relationship with Him … first and foremost. Until that relationship is in order, is it any wonder that I would struggle to develop or maintain relationships with others. Deep emptiness, a bottomless void is all that can exist apart from relationship. But the Spirit of God hovers over the emptiness of my life, waiting to speak light into it … waiting to pour all of Himself into me … waiting for me to tire of the darkness of self absorption and simply allow Him to be my all and all.