Jesus holds open the door
Part 4: See and hold everything together. The dynamic changelessness of God.
We must stay clear-sighted and hold our capacity for both good and evil clearly in mind at all times. Somehow, we have to rejoice at the wonder of life, even while we weep at the suffering of others. If we take seriously the truth that God is with us – with all of us, all the time, that he shares our lives with us, and that he loves each of us to the uttermost, then this is what God must be doing. We, in our limitations, move from times of sorrow to times of joy, we focus on one thing and only later remember another. But God holds all things simultaneously in his heart, all the time. To us, this might look like he is unchanging, but this is again only due to our limitations – as when we look to the sun and it seems to us as a constant glowing ball, but close up it is a raging turmoil of dynamic energy. But God, in his intimate sharing with each one of us, continually resonates with all that we experience, with one person’s joy overlaid with another’s sorrow, with another’s hope, with another’s weariness, so that, if we could see God it would appear to us that he is unchanging, when, in reality, he is utterly dynamic, responding to each person’s needs. Not that God is merely a cipher for us, a recording box for human experience, for to each person he is in relationship, and giving himself to that person, in each moment, adding his own personhood. And ultimately, because God is God, and he gives himself, it is life that overcomes death; it is hope that rises to the surface, not despair; it is love that wins through, not hatred; truth that trumps lies in the final hand; redemption that is victorious when defeat seemed certain.
But this is God. How are we to become like God in this? It is because Christ holds open the door.
Spiritual Devotion 