All of 17 and looking ever so fine.
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Thursday, October 10, 2019
The Good Misery
When the moths multiply in my rice bag, I don't discard the remainder of the rice like most Americans would. I gently clap my hands to drop the tiny fluttering moths and delicately pick out the itty bitty moths in the million grains of rice. Through many years of discovery, I've concluded that all rice has larvae in it, and moths will hatch if you store your rice long enough. This fascinating fact may put you off from eating at our house. Nevertheless, when I was reading Hosea 5 verse 12, I became thoughtful of my very own picture of God in the paper winged moth.
"I am like a moth to Ephraim..."
God, the most powerful, claims he is like a fragile moth to his people. Why? Well, moths are pests. They flutter before your eyes and you know without a doubt they are there. It seems to me that God is saying I will flutter before your eyes, exit out of the thick darkness of your rice bag and into the light of your face. Mark my words. I will reveal myself to you. I will get your attention with the flutter of my wings.
Surprisingly, God goes on and tells how the Decayless One will be like rot to his people. I'm not making this up. Check out the rest of verse 12.
"I am...like rot to the people of Judah."
What? How can that be? Oh, yes, God will get our attention. Moths don't have a smell. You have to see a moth to know it is there, but rot, on the other hand, will permeate the air. If you refuse to see me, I will burn the scent of your decaying decision into the back of your nostrils till it slides down your throat and you gag. The Decayless One can be like rot, because he will persist and not grow weary in the wooing of our hearts and minds. The scent of God will hover over all the decomposing parts of our lives. A merciful rot will be visible in every turning away from God decision and in every idol pursuit. Just as rot clings to a potato and spreads to every potato it touches, so will God's unrelenting pursuit of us allow a good misery into our lives. We will be pockmarked with his grace till we respond in obedience.
Then I read on. The progression of God's revelation in Hosea 5:14 still happens. The Great I AM first fluttered before them like a moth, then he touched their lives with decay like rot and next his claws rip into their flesh like a lion. This would seem to be too grizzily to be grace, but the wounding is a deeper mercy. God wants us to bring the entirety of our guilt to him. God already knows our inadequacy and desperation, but he wants us to know it too. Sometimes it takes a personal tearing of our skin to own and admit our earnest need for a Savior.
As I pondered my small miseries of moths, I want to be of the camp that sees God when he first flutters before my face. That God is like a moth is truly the mystery of a good misery.
"I am like a moth to Ephraim..."
God, the most powerful, claims he is like a fragile moth to his people. Why? Well, moths are pests. They flutter before your eyes and you know without a doubt they are there. It seems to me that God is saying I will flutter before your eyes, exit out of the thick darkness of your rice bag and into the light of your face. Mark my words. I will reveal myself to you. I will get your attention with the flutter of my wings.
Surprisingly, God goes on and tells how the Decayless One will be like rot to his people. I'm not making this up. Check out the rest of verse 12.
"I am...like rot to the people of Judah."
What? How can that be? Oh, yes, God will get our attention. Moths don't have a smell. You have to see a moth to know it is there, but rot, on the other hand, will permeate the air. If you refuse to see me, I will burn the scent of your decaying decision into the back of your nostrils till it slides down your throat and you gag. The Decayless One can be like rot, because he will persist and not grow weary in the wooing of our hearts and minds. The scent of God will hover over all the decomposing parts of our lives. A merciful rot will be visible in every turning away from God decision and in every idol pursuit. Just as rot clings to a potato and spreads to every potato it touches, so will God's unrelenting pursuit of us allow a good misery into our lives. We will be pockmarked with his grace till we respond in obedience.
Then I read on. The progression of God's revelation in Hosea 5:14 still happens. The Great I AM first fluttered before them like a moth, then he touched their lives with decay like rot and next his claws rip into their flesh like a lion. This would seem to be too grizzily to be grace, but the wounding is a deeper mercy. God wants us to bring the entirety of our guilt to him. God already knows our inadequacy and desperation, but he wants us to know it too. Sometimes it takes a personal tearing of our skin to own and admit our earnest need for a Savior.
As I pondered my small miseries of moths, I want to be of the camp that sees God when he first flutters before my face. That God is like a moth is truly the mystery of a good misery.
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
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