Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Tight squeeze

It has been a long, long week, part of a long, long year. Things have weighed me down. But it's time to rise up. There are 10,000 reasons or so to be strengthened this day.

All the while I'm pondering important things like, just how do they get the toothpaste into that tube when it won't come out for me at all?

It's a glorious day in the neighborhood. The flowers have bloomed into a coat of many colors. The temps are just this side of perfect. We are so blessed. Worship your holy name, O Lord of us all.

The Psalmist knew this kind of a day. He wrote, "I love you, Lord; you are my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety. I called on the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and he saved me..."

Grace has called our names this morning, friends. We might just be toothpaste in a tube, crowded into cracks in humanity, covered by difficulty and pain, but we have been called by the creator of the universe to be His children. Can it get better? Nah. I didn't think so.

With one touch, he set us free. He saw our needs and He met them. He loved up on us when we were unlovable. Just filthy stains. Just bloody rags. And He loved us.

David wrote, "The ropes of death entangled me; floods of destruction swept over me. The grave wrapped its ropes around me; death laid a trap in my path. But in my distress I cried out to the Lord. ... He heard me from his sanctuary; my cry to him reaches his ears."

See, when pondering the impossible (toothpaste, ketchup, etc., in a tube), think on this: God, who created billions of stars for us to look up and admire, Abba who created rainbows and Zebras, Father who made through his Son all those flowers we mentioned above, created you as His masterpiece.

Don't take my word for it, or anything else for that matter. The Apostle Paul said it in his letter to the people he loved in a little town called Ephesus. He wrote, "For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us along ago."

His masterpieces. That's us. That's who we are. More twinkling than the finest star. More loving than the smartest pooch. More adaptable than the shiniest chameleon. More more than the greatest waterfall, the greatest canyon, the greatest monument to ego and pride. We are the masterpieces of creation.

We are the universe's toothpaste in a tube, folks. Created in some incredible way to be different than we are, better than we ever thought we could be. Nothing can come against us. Nothing.

Paul in his letter to Rome wrote, "If God is for us, then who can be against us?" He adds later in the same letter, "... in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." In still another letter he says, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

God is there to (clap) pump us up. Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find. Ten thousand reasons to cheer, to pray, to honor, to cherish, to bless.

When the end draws near and my time has come, I pray that my soul will continue to praise His holy name.

And when this is all said and done, we get better bodies. The masterpieces that have grown old, tired, beat up, run over, broken will get repaired, renewed, redone.

Ain't it all great? Even if life squeezes us.

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