Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Hope Even For Humpty Dumpty

Scripture Verse that Caught My Attention Today: Job 21:23-26 One dies in full prosperity,
being wholly at ease and secure,
24 his loins full of milk
and the marrow of his bones moist.
25 Another dies in bitterness of soul,
never having tasted of good.
26 They lie down alike in the dust,
and the worms cover them.

Observation:
Different lives but the same death.

Application: We are all so different and also so alike. People make much ado about everyone’s uniqueness. We are told to “be ourselves” and to “be all we can be.” Yet at the end of our lives the same fate serves connects us all—death. However fancy or mundane the casket (if there even is a casket), eventually the worms will feast and we will be the main-but-soon-to-disappear coarse.

I’m not trying to be morbid nor am I trying to be particularly original. Job understood the nature of such things long before me. But Job also understood something else. Even before the time of Jesus, Job knew something of the power of God to bring life out of death and freshness out of decay. Back in chapter 19 Job declared:

25 For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and that at the last he will stand upon the earth;
26 and after my skin has been thus destroyed,
then in my flesh I shall see God,
Good for him. Good for us.

Prayer: Lord, it’s almost easier to give thanks when someone does something for us that we could do on our own but is just a lot of unappealing work. Like when someone helps us carry the groceries in the snow or rain. But how do we give thanks when it’s something that we could never do on our own? It’s so big that the word ‘thanks’ seems woefully inadequate and, in fact, every expression of thanksgiving seems inadequate. After the worms have had their way, you are the only one capable of once again making us whole. That’s far beyond our abilities. As the old nursery rhyme puts it: “And all the king’s horses and all the king’s men, couldn’t put Humpty together again.” In Jesus’ name. Amen.

(Readings today included: Job 21 and Mark 5-6)

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