The musical version of Les Miserables begins with the words,
“Look down, look down, Don't look 'em in the eye, Look down, look down, You're
here until you die.” This day’s reading
from Ecclesiasticus is all about telling us to look up, look to the sun, moon,
stars, rainbow, all those things that tell of God’s glory. When we look at images from the Hubble
telescope, when we consider the vastness of the universe and the space
approaching nothingness that our planet occupies in that universe, its utter
insignificance and then our own insignificance on this insignificant planet,
but that the God who created it all took on flesh and dwelt among us in order
that we might become like Him and have eternal life, we have hope. We’re here until we die becomes something to
live for, tells us we aren’t slaves, we can raise our heads and look God in the
eye because of Jesus. Indeed, we can say
more but we can never say enough, “He is all!”
Considering the vastness of the universe isn’t it amazing
that Jesus tells parables of the kingdom of heaven using such common and small
things as wheat, weeds, mustard seeds and leaven? How could the kingdom of heaven be something
as small as that? It makes this life
seem incredibly important to think that a cosmic battle to establish the
kingdom of God could play itself through my life. Every little thing plays a role of cosmic
significance. There is God and there is
an enemy, why is their attention concentrated on this little planet? Those are questions too great to consider,
all we are called to do is love one another and that somehow changes the course
of cosmic history. I have to leave the
judgment and the details to the one who can know such things that I can’t even
imagine, and do the work He has given me to do in the belief that it truly
matters in ways that are incomprehensible.
Great indeed is the mystery of godliness, that the Word, for
our sake, became flesh and dwelt among us, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was
crucified, died and was buried, rose again on the third day, ascended into
heaven and will come again to judge the living and the dead and that His
kingdom will have no end. What a
marvelous mystery! Holy, holy, holy is
the Lord God Almighty! Paul affirms that
all of God’s creation is good and that all things are made holy by two things,
the Word of God and prayer if we receive them with thanksgiving. Let today be the day you lift your eyes and
begin receiving with thanksgiving for all things. Let it be the day you come alive to all the
wonder and possibility of God in and through your life.
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