A Life Lesson

Beloved? (gentle)

Consider with me for a moment, this life, please.

This world, we live in, is broken, yes? Aye. It is, indeed, verily broken.

And, what, do you think, is the purpose of all this pain, this sorrow, this grief?

One might say it’s for our maturity, our growth, our…’being refined’. Yes, I do believe that is true…but I think there may be an even more important lesson, a higher purpose, a singular, proper, response.

Please, consider with me this life, Together, from the beginning.

“In the beginning, God…”

God was in the beginning. He created many things, and these things were good, “very good,“ just like Him – for He is good. He created us, in His image. What a thing to be marveled! And, what mysteries are still hidden in such words, yes?! He then said to us:

“You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” —Genesis 2:16–17 (ESV)

Of course, our minds can wonder…we can try and guess as to why He said such things, we can speculate as to the purpose behind such a command…and yet, I’m not sure it’s all that helpful, or even possible to determine such matters.

Instead, we should trust Him, and take Him at His Word, for His Words are true, and good.

History reveals our choice – our choice is still lived out day by day, sadly, wherever sin remains. That awful day in which we rebelled, we decided to distrust our Creator. We wondered: perhaps He isn’t good, perhaps we know better?

And…life…became hard.
Life became, bitter.

His Words, reveal to us, time and again…and our own life experience day by day, moment by moment, tell us: how we, created in His image, are miserable without Him; how we, trying to go our own way, can, and never will be, satisfied.

I…(pondering) wonder, if the main purpose, if I dare call it that, in this life, this time set apart from Him, in this way; is Him trying to show us, in vivid (gory) detail, just how very miserable life is apart from Him.

He is…graciously telling us: I told you so. And, not just saying it, but allowing us to live in it, to experience its depth, its lack of fulfillment, its emptiness, its sadness, its sorrow – apart from Him.

And oh! What a gracious lesson to be learned, beloved! What better way to know, to feel the depravity, the lack, the lifeless void apart from Him…and what an incredible, awful, yet effective, way to fully appreciate all of the joy and life in Him and Him alone, yes?

He hasn’t abandoned us, beloved. He hasn’t stopped loving us. He is still, very good. So good in fact, that He put on bodily form. He humbled Himself and took on flesh, just like us, and lived among us, and became “a Man of Sorrows” with us. His Love for us wasn’t limited, His Love is faithful, steadfast, and everlasting.

He will, some Day, say: “Come!” And we will, Together, see Him as He is and rejoice and be glad. We will know in our hearts that He, and He alone, is God and there is no other. He is good, and there is no good apart from Him.

We will know that life apart from Him isn’t life at all, really. It’s miserable, because we will have lived it, and felt it, and tasted its bitterness.

He gives us the gift of faith, even now, so that we can exercise our pathetic, weak, muscle of belief. Let us put our trust in Him.

Let our eyes ever be toward the Lord, for He will pluck our feet from the net, beloved.