A Thought For The Week Of May 15, 2017

"For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen." (Romans 11:36) From him, through him and for him. That doesn't leave much out, does it. All things belong to Christ. Everything that exists does so in an intimate relationship with that which created it all. To me, that's the basis of Christianity. Our faith is about an intimate relationship with Jesus. We are connected to him; we are guided by him; we are given new life through him. Whatever we are, as Christians it is because of Jesus. All things are from him. Or, as John put it in his Gospel, nothing that came into being did so without him. All things are through him. Jesus is the intersection of the temporal with the eternal; of the profane with the sacred; of the natural with the divine. We approach God through Jesus, and God approaches us through Jesus. He is the gate, or the door - not locked, but wide open in invitation to all to share this relationship of intimacy with God. And all things are for him. His work continues, and all that exists in some way has a role to play in the furtherance of that work. We can't always see it, but if everything exists for Jesus, then everything has a God-give purpose. None of us are unimportant; all of us are created to be a part of God's work and of Jesus' ministry in the world. Most of the time we're probably unaware of that calling - which is both a great privilege and a great responsibility. Truth be told, most of the time we may yearn to feel an intimate connection with Jesus - but it seems elusive and distant. But if everything is from, through and for Jesus then even those times when we feel distant from Jesus can be holy moments; times of holy awareness. Jesus is indeed the one who holds everything together. And so Paul - who knew both hardships and blessings; who felt both intimacy and distance from God - can quite rightly say "To him be the glory forever," punctuating those words with an emphatic "Amen."