On this brilliantly sunshiny Tuesday, life is good, and simple, and easy, right? OK, awesome/brilliant. Since we’re fresh from a good night’s sleep, and we’ve already had an intake of our favorite caffeine source (at our house the coffee’s on a timer so it’s ready by the time the alarm sounds the arrival of a new day). All this, I assume, means we are alert and eager to tackle a doozy of a query. Here it is: For us, in this Advent Season, 2021, resulting from Jesus’ perfect sacrifice, his quintessential, verbally declared kudos by His Father, his current, Royal Status, seated at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for all of us, what are the day-in-day-out, nitty-gritty realities regarding the gift which the Prince of Peace brought with him? With eternity, adoption, inheritance all nailed down for us at Jesus’ expense, what lack is there? What further provision is needed for the completion of our marinating process? What, from eternity-here to eternity-then, could more fully seat us on the inside of his blessing of peace? (I know, I know, thanks, PD, for the mind-bending question! You’re welcome, I’m sure!).
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In my frequently circuitous thinking about such things, including the rabbit trails and the daydreaming and senior brain glitches, I’ve become convinced that one of the most egregious lies perpetrated by the Enemy of our souls is, hideously, another version of his lie to Eve in the Garden. It comes to us in the form of a disturbing insinuation, very much like the one that got us into all the trouble we’ve inherited. For example: “Do you really think God intends for you to live here on earth with more than a mere fraction of the Peace He knows?” You see, it’s moot questions like these (moot, because the answer is clearly implied in the question itself) which can send unprepared and unprotected hearts spinning off into a dark orbit, a trajectory which fails to lead back home, by the way. And there are many, many believers, once sincerely following Jesus, who, unintentionally, have been jetted off on a one-way journey to cynicism and unbelief and an eventual, total shipwreck of faith. So, to my question above, isn’t it conceivable that the explosive power of the Prince of Peace is adequate to keep and to save, to protect even the most vulnerable, to fully provision every pilgrim’s journey to the heart of the Father, to satisfy the deepest longings in the loneliest of souls? Thoughts? * PD
