There is much in life that I do not understand. I find that as I get older there is even less that I know with certainty! Explaining the reasons for pain, hurt, and anger is a task filled with the illusive and non-existent. Finding the answers out for the bizarre turns and twists life gives us is an impossible task that very few tackle. Life is a mystery. Life is filled with the unknown and unpredictable. Life is beyond our ability to control.
Life is also full of beauty and awesome displays of creativity and imagination. I do not understand the mystery surrounding a butterfly or a tadpole. I find myself pulled into silence as the morning sun emerges into the new day. All around me are examples and experiences of free gifts of love, mercy, and friendship. People give up their place for a stranger in the driving rain at the toll-booth where nobody will notice or care. People reaching out to a child who is crying, looking to comfort even when they have no connection. The smile and gift of a child is truly priceless.
For me it is the combination of pain and love that defines life today. Without one I cannot understand the other. Without both I lose sight of the hope that I wake up clinging to each morning. John saw something that appears for many as odd.
“I looked, and there, surrounded by Throne, Animals, and Elders, was a Lamb, slaughtered but standing tall.” (Revelation 5.4)
A Lamb slaughtered but standing tall. God is surrounded by the trapping of being the Supreme Being, personally bearing the marks of dealing with the problems of this world yet standing tall. I do not understand yet I can sense what has already happened.
God has paid a price for being the “who” and “what” God is. God has positioned everything so that the opportunity for my recreation is complete. Everything has been done. Don’t worry about the price. God is certain that the slaughter for you and me was and is worth it.
