Lent 2022, Day 34

 


From Luke 10, after Jesus sent his disciples out to heal and preach:

³ Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. ²⁴ For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”

We are “blessed” like the disciples, getting to see the arc of the story of God and having the privilege of now living in the Age of Grace—although from today’s headlines you wouldn’t necessarily know it. 

Despite our wishfully thinking that human nature is evolving, becoming enlightened and good, it seems pretty clear to me that human nature is still what’s it’s always been: power-hungry, tribal, in-the-moment selfish and sometimes even cruel. So where is this Grace from the so-named Age of Grace? The world looks pretty much the way it always has, only with wifi. 

I can *sort of* grasp at concepts like this one through my dogs. (Surprise!) Take Libby: the world she’s in has not changed, nor has her basic nature. She is still spiky and bitey, although she has agreed to try to do better. But her position in the world has changed: she’s a member of the family now, no longer a street dog. She has a name and is known and loved. She is learning (please, let her be learning!) to view the world through a lens of security and not one of fear. The world has not changed, but her position in it has. She is living in and under grace. Her reality has not changed, but at the same time it has utterly changed.

So it is with us. The world is still broken, but it has also been redeemed, and a redeemed and grace-filled identity is available to all. This is the whole “now but not yet” concept I love to talk about. We are free to see the big picture; free to not act on the worst of our human impulses; free to see the value of each human soul. Free to know we are loved and free to see the world through that lens.

In other words: Bitey but accepted. Spiky but home.

#lent2022 #bibleinoneyear #rescuedogsofinstagram #repentandbelieve

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