I certainly don't claim to be a Biblical scholar... my lack of the Word is nothing short of pathetic. Especially given my exposure to it in the past 24 years. I don't mean to be flippant about it, and especially don't mean to make excuses; I just don't want to claim to be something I'm not.
Despite 24 years of Sunday school, church, youth group, Christian high school AND college, etc. etc. I know the token verses, and a lot of the passages I have memorized aren't word for word and I couldn't give you the chapter and verse. Something I have been working on, and will continue to work on... since I didn't see the need to memorize content when I had scripture quizzes in school... just memorized 5 minutes prior for the grade (oh well, I guess hindsight really is 20/20).
However, BibleGateway.com, has become a close friend of mine as I learn more of the verses and where they are actually located in the books. Today, it pulled through once again. In the 19th chapter of Luke, when Jesus is coming to Jerusalem as a King, scriptures tell us...
38 “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”
40 “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”
The 40th verse was my motivation for looking it up in the first place. If WE (as in the human race) cease to praise the name of THE Lord, HIS creation will do it for us. Now, to me, that raises several excellent points:
1. The inanimate objects we are surrounded by, that we say are physically unable to speak, are created by the One who created life, so obviously, they can praise. Along with that, everything they do (sit still like a rock, blow in the wind like a tree, etc.) they do for the glory of the Lord. Ouch, I can't say I do the same.
2. The Lord is WORTHY of praise... He can not not be praised. It is impossible. If we who He wants praise from choose not to do so, others will have to take our places.
3. Finally, if it gets to that point; the point where rocks are crying out in praise due to our silence, it is NOT going to be pretty. That is literally all I will say about that; it elicits no further explanation.
All of this to say, what a TRAGEDY it would be for creation to have to cry out in worship because we do not. Please note, that I am in no way saying that I cry out in praise as I should and I am aware of how much I am contributing to this issue, which is part of why I am writing of it in the first place.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist, or even someone like me (who is often several fries and a toy short of a Happy Meal) to realize that in the past oh, I don't know... 10 or so years, that natural disasters seem to happen more and more. In my personal memory, it feels like since the tsunami in India right after Christmas 2004, tsunamis (most recently Japan), earthquakes (New Zealand, Peru, Haiti), hurricanes (Katrina... lest you forget, check in with those from New Orleans), blizzards (hello winter 2010-1), etc. have been on the rise.
I am no theologian (please try to contain your shock), but it's my simple, ignorant, based on nothing more than a gut feeling, that the "rocks are crying out" per se. As we (humans, which unfortunately I am VERY much of one) continue to lose sight of what's important, and often neglect to praise and worship the One who is worthy, His creation feels the need to move (earthquakes), blow (hurricanes), and raise its hands (tornadoes) in our place.
Though I know our country is known as "Christian nation", is there really such a thing? Is that really an accurate name given that prayer, the Ten Commandments, the Nativity scene, and "God" can't be mentioned anywhere unless it is for use of irreverent humor? While I don't believe for a millisecond that the Lord is punishing these nations for neglecting Him, I do believe that the responsibility to praise is there, it is simply a matter of who it is fulfilled by; and I strongly believe that He'd rather hear it from us than those boulders, but that's just my thought. When the psalmist in Psalm 150:6 says, "let everything that HAS BREATH praise the Lord", he meant it. He wasn't referring to nature and objects... he was referring to those who have been given life.
My heart breaks for all who have been effected by these tragedies (most recently the Japanese) and my prayers go out to them (genuinely, not just because that's what you're "supposed to say"). I in no way mean to discount what has happened or trivialize the pain that people have felt. I pray that I (and many others) begin to take worship so seriously, that the boulders can go back to being big cement masses, the trees can go back to shaking their leaves (preferably regrowing green leaves for spring please and thank you) and that the oceans can go back to being serene bodies of crystal blue water. Naturally, this isn't just for their benefit... I believe that the manifestation of praise to the King in our lives will do wonders... for ALL. Praise be to the LORD.
0 comments:
Post a Comment