Today's post is by guest writer, Keith Ward.
During Dene’s major eye surgeries (2005-2008), I realized she would not be able to stand much light, reading would be limited and TV boring. I had just read an article about attracting birds, so I built a 4’ long trough between 2 boards (total width one foot) on posts just a foot from the window by her recliner. The birds began coming: counting those passing through, we have fed over 30 different kinds of birds (she has a category of devotionals on the sidebar, “Birds & Animals”). It is not unusual to count 20+ cardinals at once around 5pm—“the cardinal hour”. Suddenly they are all gone! We see a couple of doves, a catbird or two, maybe, and a cardinal in a whole day. No titmice, no wrens, no chickadees. This has never happened before. Of course, with spring we get some travelers, the dozens of sparrows migrate away and “our” (generations have been hatched here) cardinals come less frequently, but never such a total absence of birds. No, there have been no signs of predators or predation.
But this made me think a bit, I think the Bible calls it meditation, all the beautiful things we have are evidences of God’s grace and love. We live in a world of sin and have become so accustomed to it that we do not comprehend its ugliness. One man did.
Jesus, holy one of God who left purity and wonder beyond imagination to walk through a cesspool for over 30 years said more about hell than all the rest of the Bible. These are the descriptions of punishments that make us begin to understand how awful sin must appear to God (and what a sacrifice it was for Jesus to even live as a man). They are contradictory and exorbitant because they are figures of speech to convey the inexpressible. “Unquenchable fire,” “Outer darkness,” “their worm dieth not.” At a loss for words to convey the horror more clearly, Jesus said that it would be better to tear out your own eyeball than to go there. God is just. These describe the wrath of God that Jesus saved us from. God is just and such a destiny is the fair end for those who sin. We had best distance ourselves from sin.
But, in this life, brambles, thorns, sickness, cancer, are all the results of God’s curse on the world for Adam’s sin and “because all sinned” (Rom 5:12). Should we consider the “exceeding sinfulness of sin” we would wonder why there are any flowers, beautiful birds, colors, music, tastes, beauties anywhere. A sin cursed world should be bleak, ugly-only and nasty.
But, God gives us birdsong, flowers and fragrances, sounds and tastes that delight the senses, scenery that awes the soul. Why? He loves us. These are signs of his grace to reveal his character. “And so, because we have sinned, there is ugliness, but because God is good, there is beauty and wonder.
If God can leave such grace and wonder in our sin cursed world, truly, “How Beautiful Heaven Must Be.” When God so loved that he gave his only begotten son, can you imagine what it must be like to be where that love is, and is forever?
Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned…But not as the trespass, so also is the free gift. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound unto the many (Rom 5:12,15).
Keith Ward
During Dene’s major eye surgeries (2005-2008), I realized she would not be able to stand much light, reading would be limited and TV boring. I had just read an article about attracting birds, so I built a 4’ long trough between 2 boards (total width one foot) on posts just a foot from the window by her recliner. The birds began coming: counting those passing through, we have fed over 30 different kinds of birds (she has a category of devotionals on the sidebar, “Birds & Animals”). It is not unusual to count 20+ cardinals at once around 5pm—“the cardinal hour”. Suddenly they are all gone! We see a couple of doves, a catbird or two, maybe, and a cardinal in a whole day. No titmice, no wrens, no chickadees. This has never happened before. Of course, with spring we get some travelers, the dozens of sparrows migrate away and “our” (generations have been hatched here) cardinals come less frequently, but never such a total absence of birds. No, there have been no signs of predators or predation.
But this made me think a bit, I think the Bible calls it meditation, all the beautiful things we have are evidences of God’s grace and love. We live in a world of sin and have become so accustomed to it that we do not comprehend its ugliness. One man did.
Jesus, holy one of God who left purity and wonder beyond imagination to walk through a cesspool for over 30 years said more about hell than all the rest of the Bible. These are the descriptions of punishments that make us begin to understand how awful sin must appear to God (and what a sacrifice it was for Jesus to even live as a man). They are contradictory and exorbitant because they are figures of speech to convey the inexpressible. “Unquenchable fire,” “Outer darkness,” “their worm dieth not.” At a loss for words to convey the horror more clearly, Jesus said that it would be better to tear out your own eyeball than to go there. God is just. These describe the wrath of God that Jesus saved us from. God is just and such a destiny is the fair end for those who sin. We had best distance ourselves from sin.
But, in this life, brambles, thorns, sickness, cancer, are all the results of God’s curse on the world for Adam’s sin and “because all sinned” (Rom 5:12). Should we consider the “exceeding sinfulness of sin” we would wonder why there are any flowers, beautiful birds, colors, music, tastes, beauties anywhere. A sin cursed world should be bleak, ugly-only and nasty.
But, God gives us birdsong, flowers and fragrances, sounds and tastes that delight the senses, scenery that awes the soul. Why? He loves us. These are signs of his grace to reveal his character. “And so, because we have sinned, there is ugliness, but because God is good, there is beauty and wonder.
If God can leave such grace and wonder in our sin cursed world, truly, “How Beautiful Heaven Must Be.” When God so loved that he gave his only begotten son, can you imagine what it must be like to be where that love is, and is forever?
Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned…But not as the trespass, so also is the free gift. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound unto the many (Rom 5:12,15).
Keith Ward
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