12/19987 - Dot or Destiny

"According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature" (II Peter 1:3,4).

When one was about ten, one encountered a can of varnish, or better said, connected with it. A relative had set up a workbench against the garage wall. The relative was varnishing some rack on the workbench when the lad came around to "inspect" the work. In the course of the inspection (unsolicited) the lad knocked over a can of varnish, and watched it spread out obscenely across the white stucco wall.

At the age of twenty-five, one encountered a bucket of white paint. The lad, now fifteen years older and "very mature," was painting houses to fund his college education. He was painting the dormers of a three-story house. Access to the dormers was achieved by means of a "ladder jack" (a rack with nails as cleats to adhere to the roof). Unknown to the occupant of the jack, the nails had gotten bent over so that they did not stick. Unexpectedly the ladder jack started sliding down the roof toward an unobstructed drop of three stories. The painter grabbed for the eave to get off the jack and in so doing knocked over a bucket of white paint. Alas, the roof was red and the white paint spread out across it—a gleaming white flag of surrender to the demon "clumsiness."

And so it goes—the endless frustrations of human inadequacy. The spirit, having been created in the image and likeness of God, would soar like the eagle, but the flesh, cursed by the fall, crawls on it’s belly like a lizard, struggling over the crags and crevices of the earthly domain.

But what difference does it make in the vastness of the universe? After all the earth is but a tiny speck amidst the immense galaxies of endless space. If all we are is material substance, then, of course, it makes no difference at all. As James puts it, we are "like a vapor that appeareth for a time and vanisheth away." The most noble and magnificent ventures that humans can execute on earth, are nothing more than the efforts of the ant, constructing it’s minute and momentary dwelling in the dust. But, if we are essentially spirit—partakers of the nature of God—as Peter suggests, then it is a different story. As identified with God, the Creator of the vastness of the universe, we partake also of His magnitude. We are, in fact, as He, infinite and eternal.

But how can such tiny specks be of any significance whatsoever? The answer lies in the nature of energy, which, after all, is in reality the essence of all the universe. In the case of certain kinds of energy, one small cube, could, if harnessed, power an entire city, as one microscopic neutron can release the energy to pulverize it.

But how could such minute particles be of significance to God? They can be if they are part of His Divine nature. The human body gives us a clue. In a certain sense the body functions like an electrical circuit. There are many trillions of tiny nerve cells throughout the body which conduct the flow of what we might call electric impulses, carrying messages continuously between the brain and the nerve endings. Some of these tiny nerve cells are only a few microns in length. All of these nerve cells connect with the brain, which is in instant touch with each one. Thus, a minute nerve ending on the foot, some four to six feet from the brain, relays instantly the sensation of a tiny pin prick. It is this principle that makes practical the statement of Jesus—"Even the very hairs of your head are numbered."

In the original creation, man was intended to be such a part of God, partaking of His very Spirit nature. But this spirit was forfeited in the Fall and, while man continues to function as a living entity with a complex nervous system which makes him very like God. He lost the spirit, which gave him significance. The destiny of man was to continue eternally as part of God—a radiating of His energy, even as Jesus. Without the fulfillment of that destiny man becomes no more than a meaningless dot in the vastness of the universe.

Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, came into the world to join the human "dots," and restore to them their pristine oneness with God that would give back to them their eternal significance. The Bible calls it His "humiliation." "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery [a thing to be grasped after]: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Philippians 2:5-8). The death of Christ was brutish and devastating to human flesh, but the greatest humiliation was to enter the finite, fleshly microcosm of the "dot," with all it’s limitations and frustrations—a prison cell of sin and sorrow; of infirmity and affliction; of the chains of space and time—to face a moment of separation from God, who alone gives significance to the infinitesimal "dot." The infinite God penetrated the space/time cosmos, in order to lift His creatures from the prison of the "dot" to the limitless destiny of eternity. "But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of His Son into your heart, crying, Abba, Father. Therefore, thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ" (Galatians 4:4-7).

To be delivered from the "dot consciousness," and enter into the fullness of the divine destiny, one has only to join with Christ, sent of God into the world of time to lift His creatures into the spiritual dimension which He had ordained for Him from the beginning. In the dimension of the "dot," even a king is no more than a speck, but Jesus elected to come to the lowest echelons of the realm of the "dot." He came not as a king or a nobleman or a statesman; but he came as a simple son of a simple woman of Nazareth, who would make his life with the poor and ignoble of the world. He came to the meek and lowly that He might raise them to the high and heavenly. He came to the weak and afflicted that He might raise them to power and glory.