Not being a meteorologist and having abandoned hopes of ‘getting’ what I’ve read, here are my non-scientist thoughts about what a thunderstorm is – with the usual apologies. It has something to do with hot air blowing up and coming in contact with different air blowing crossways. When those two crash into one another, there are great sparks and epic explosions and massive outbursts of water. This conflict goes on for a little while, each huffing and puffing and scaring people witless with the intensity of the altercation. When the two airs grow battle weary, everything calms down and more cool-headed air reigns once more (warning: do not use this info in any academic assignments).
I’m defining this weather system this way because, while certainly not technically accurate, it helps me to picture what happens when two thought systems (i.e. Covenants) collide. Neither is willing to make room for the other. The new ‘system’ is viewed as the enemy by the old system. The old system is viewed as being past its usefulness, or relevance, by the new system. God became Man in Jesus (the New Covenant), and Jesus’ Incarnation was viewed as a scandal by the gatekeepers of the Old Covenant. And so it was that Jesus had to be rejected. Then, his teachings seemed to smack of dismissing the Old Covenant. Finally, it seemed that only the death of Jesus would be able to restore peace to the Old Covenant. In more recent times, someone has remarked that each new wave (revival) of the Spirit is rejected by those impacted by the previous wave (revival) of the Spirit. And on and on it goes.
Jesus called this unwillingness to accept or see, blindness. It’s a soundless thunderstorm, but equally dismissive, equally exclusive in its rejection. To use Jesus’ metaphor, perhaps if my definition above would hold, if the two airs would choose to just ‘see,’ they could merge and go quietly, avoiding all the fuss. By the same token then, if we, as God’s children, could just allow God to be God, that submission to the perfection of His Plan ‘A’ might, just might, unleash within us power such as we’ve never known – without fighting Him to the last breath. PD
