“and He made mankind to live on all the face of the earth, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘in him we live and move and have our being.’ ”
Acts 17:26-28
I’ve been thinking about the kindness of God, as a facet of his love. The Bible tells the great, wide, sweeping story of his love over thousands of generations of people from many nations through histories, narratives, poems, letters, songs and dreams. So, to be able to boil down the story, as Paul does in Acts 17, to a group of people who have never heard any of it, but somehow knew the same poems in their hearts, is a testament to his brilliance and the Spirit of God in him. I am struck by the brevity in which these two short verses illuminate God’s great and gracious plan and illustrate his loving-kindness to us.
Here’s the longer version, but still a summary.
God made mankind with a desire for God -with such a capacity to perceive and sense and exult in God’s glory that we should seek him. Sometimes earnestly, sometimes accidentally. We stumble across the feelings of wholeness and purity and rightness in all kinds of places. Mostly because his glory is everywhere – in the cool rush of the wind that moves down through the mountain forest like a wave, like gleams of tiny diamonds hitting every shining ripple in the bay when the sunlight crests the horizon, in the lilting melody of a symphony that weaves its way to its crescendo sending our hearts through the ceiling, in a loving glance that goes deeper than the years and the tears, and breaks open eternity. Yes, I am certain we all have those moments when we experience the Profound, and we find ourselves fumbling for more… crawling on our hands and knees for just a little more of that… whatever That is. God made us that way. This is his kindness towards us -that our whole lives would be oriented toward the One who makes us whole, and pure and alive.
Yet, He is not far from us, that we should have to climb every mountain or forge every sea, looking for just traces of his glory – our wholeness. No, Paul says He is here, not only near, but in us, and we in him. Out of kindness, God avails himself to us. How is this possible, asked so many of the great witnesses throughout the history of God’s people. How can this be?
“Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway.”
Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we’re at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life!” Romans 5:6-11(MSG)
We are not only made right with God, but we are also made one with him through Jesus Christ. We are in Him.
Our simple belief that Jesus could turn our lives from fumbling in a dark forest to standing in the wide-open landscape of his love is the key to the fullness God wants to impart in us. He could turn our lives from the foreboding dread that sometimes overshadows us in the dark of night. He could fill us with a deep, rejuvenating breath that clears our head. He could override our fears with the certainty of his love and presence. He could settle our rapidly beating heart. He could if he wanted to. He can make our life full, where “we find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory”. Romans 5:2 (MSG)
The question is… does Jesus want to? I think his willful assent to the cross not only answers that question but makes possible the very thing we desire. He did what was necessary to give us what we need the most. The kindness of God, which is himself, given to a people who did not know what they were looking for.
Maybe the question is, in fact, …do we want what he is offering? Do we want to live and move and find our being in him? The minute we say yes, the mountain breezes rush in and His Presence swells in us like the symphonic crescendo. We are full. We can be, if we want to be.
“It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. ” Ephesians 1:11 (MSG).
Or as Paul said, “In him we live and move and have our being.”
It’s a simple as that. God wants us to find him and has made a way through Jesus, his Son. Somewhere along this path, all the righteousness for which our heart has ached begins to be fulfilled, our sorrows are tenderly addressed and weigh less, the pain of our weakness is washed away. We can stand gazing at our reflection in the mirror and say with all certainty, look at the kindness of God in my life! Here is the great big plan in a nutshell: that we should seek him with all our heart, to find him and to be found in him.
“and He made mankind to live on all the face of the earth, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘in him we live and move and have our being.’ ”
Acts 17:26-28
Amen