1621AFC052016 – Made to Last
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Revelation 1:8 – 8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea. Before I begin with today’s post, I want to acknowledge two people. The first is Crucita. “Back in the day,” when I wrote to her, I started each letter with, My dearest Darling Wife, Crucita.” She still carries that title – along with a few others like Minister of Finance and Yes Dear – so I’m taking a few lines to just reiterate my best wishes to her as she is now on her third day into her seventy-second year. I’ve had the honor of chumming around with her for 47.08 years, about 65.75% of my life. I’ve mentioned before that our friends in 1969 predicted “it won’t last six weeks.” We were/are so very different from one another; but we use the differences to expand our reach in life, and for the first 47 years, that has worked out well; so well, in fact, that we have lasted 409.43 times longer than that early prediction. Back then, it did not appear that this Vocation of Marriage was built to last – but it did.
The second person I want to acknowledge is someone I met for probably less than five minutes – Aubrey. If you read the most recent Terrific Tuesday’s Message, you will know who I mean. Aubrey is terminally ill with a very poor prognosis. He has been the subject of a goodly number of prayers this week – and I hope you will continue to pray for him even after this week is over – and all of that is because of a brief chance encounter in front of our COSTCO store here in Lihuʻe. Seeing Aubrey in such a poor state of health was an agonizing reminder of the fleeting nature of our lives on this mote of dust in the eye of the cosmos. Length of life is never a guarantee, but death most certainly is. Perhaps I, and all of you – please God – will outlive Aubrey. His circumstances remind us that our bodies are not made to last – at least not any more. In biblical times, it seems people lived hundreds of years – although we often think they just counted years differently – and then life spans grew progressively shorter through time until – in the Twentieth Century – things began to turn around again, and now we are living longer. Still “longer” is not all that long, is it?
Nonetheless, as I have often repeated of late, we are “made to last.” Perhaps you might be thinking the better phrase is “built to last.” Maybe that has a different meaning – built versus made. For me, to build connotes the assembly of parts designed to make a composite unit. Make connotes to take one thing and transform it into something other than its original form. For that reason, I’m sticking with “made to last.” We start out as one thing – a being created in the image and likeness of God – and then through various changes without really adding any new parts (except for occasional repairs), we become more and more like the Creator and less and less like the Creation. Creation, of which we are a part, has a finite lifespan. Eventually everything that was created will cease to be (especially we earthlings), and then God will take everything that was and make it all new by reverting to what it was originally – eternal.
That’s quite a plan! It’s more than clever; it is flat our ingenious. I would never be able to think up something like that – not and make it work. I suppose there are scientists, and writers, and sages, and brainy folks that could spin a yarn like that; but, no way could it be so complex and yet simple, so foolish and yet so wise. God built the world with Wisdom. How do I know? (You surely have heard this one before.) The Bible tells me so. Here are three examples
Proverbs 3:19 – 19 The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens;
Jeremiah 10:12 – 12 It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.
Proverbs 8:22-36 – Please click on that link and see how Wisdom – created by God himself – played a role in Creation.
We are products of the Wisdom of God. He made us in his image and likeness using his Wisdom and Understanding. He created the Earth, and from the Earth, he made … earthlings! Well, DUH! But the Earth, and by extension earthlings, are no longer “just like God.” Sin changed us. Salvation changes us back. When God makes everything new by restoring everything to its original state of perfection, we will again be “like him for we shall see him as he is.” (See 1 John 3:2) When Heaven and Earth pass away, the Wisdom of God will remain; what he created with Wisdom will remain. He created perfection. Sin introduced imperfection. God will restore all to perfection again. Because of this, because we somehow understand this, we can look around at how magnificent Creation is and say that God is majestic, magnificent, glorious, and superlative beyond all else – worthy of eternal praise. It is a good thing, then, that we are made to last because that allows us to praise and glorify him forever. THAT is “made to last.” But there’s a turn of that phrase that might not be as readily seen.
We are not only designed to last, we are also required to last. We are like HIM. We are eternally alive because of HIM. Our likeness to HIS likeness obliges us to live as he lives – beyond the limits of time. That is what allows us to believe in, anticipate, even expect to spend the rest of eternity praising him. That vey expectation induces us to praise and glorify him now. You might have heard the word DOXOLOGY before. The etymology of that is Greek from doxa – glory or praise – and logia – word. A doxology is a word (or words) of praise. Some common forms are like these:
The Doxology – Old One Hundredth. (↔ Music Link)
Glory Be to the Father – A Doxology (↔ Music Link)
Glory to God – A modern version Gloria (↔ Music Link)
We praise him in song, in dance, in prayer, in actions, in service, in alms, and in our hearts and minds. Someday soon we – most of us I hope – will praise him in person. There’s good reason to do this because we were made for that purpose – to worship and praise HIM who loves us. Take a look at these passages (and I hope you will use the links because they help lend us a wider perception).
Psalm 103:1-2 – 1 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. 2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits.
Psalm 106:48 – 48 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. And let all the people say, “Amen.” Praise the Lord!
Psalm 111:10 – 10 The fear [reverence] of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever.
Proverbs 3:19 – 19 The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens;
Proverbs 8:22-36 – (Please click on that link and see how Wisdom played a role in Creation.)
Proverbs 9:10 – 10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
Isaiah 41:4 – 4 Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, am first, and will be with the last.
Jeremiah 10:12 – 12 It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.
Everything God made was made to last – even us. You, and me, and Crucita, and Aubrey, and every earthling you know are all made to last for the glory and honor of God who, in HIS Wisdom made it so.
I’m betting that as you read through this, you are thinking of God as “God the Father.” But you know, I know, we know we also have God the Son who was there for every moment of Creation. Here is an amazing FACT about that:
John 15:16 – 15 All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
You may recall how that is going to happen. It will be through the Holy Spirit who was there for every moment of Creation with the Father and the Son. A-h-h-h. Now we have it. Sunday is Trinity Sunday, and we will hear some of these passages with our brothers and sisters in the Lord. That is why we sing praise to the Trinity now, and why we will be singing praise to the Trinity forever. With wisdom, power, glory, and might, God – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – made all that is, all that was, and all that every will be – even you, even me.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be World without end. Amen. AMEN!
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Belovéd!
Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
