Doubts of Confirmation

I don’t know why we are always so surprised and disappointed in our doubts. We are in good company. John the Baptist needed reassurance, Doubting Thomas, James the brother of Jesus, all of Christ’s followers for that matter wallowed in doubts and fears after the crucifixion. Then the physical presence of Jesus or in John’s case a direct word from the physical Jesus reassures. I suspect the desire for physical evidence springs from our origin as a people made for and satisfied by God’s presence. Our roots in the physical should give way to the winds of the Spirit more readily, but they don’t. We incline to the material world. But, once upon a time we thought more highly of Spiritual things.

Much of this life for a Christian strikes me as a walk on the road to Emmaus. We walk along with Jesus at our sides and don’t even know he’s Jesus. This of course has nothing at all to do with the fact that he is still Jesus. Then we find something of the familiar in his words or deeds and are elated at the revelation that he has been with us all along.

Doubting is far from uncommon and seems to me a confirmation that we were made for God’s presence where no dark glass obscures our vision. We will have that someday, when Faith and Hope are no longer needed because we are finally in the presence of the One who satisfies completely. 

Parting is such sweet sorrow

Parting is such sweet sorrow … but only for the Christian. For, it is only the Christian who has certitude that his partings with his brothers and sisters are only temporary.  No divide can be contrived that can keep them forever apart. Miles don’t matter. They represent a geographic inconvenience. Time doesn’t matter; it will one day be rolled up like a carpet.

Parting ultimately doesn’t exist for Believers. We are one body, and the body is never parted from itself short of great violence, but there is no violence that can tear one from the body of Christ. So it would seem that parting is a kind of failing of eyesight more than a statement of truth or possibility. We just can’t see far enough. Parting for a Believer is a dirty trick of the material world, but a Christian is spirit too and bound to all other Christians of the Body in that spirit.

I will soon be parted from two beloved friends. Chicago is a long way but I must remind myself that they’ve not left me, they’ve just run off over the hill a piece and out of view and will be back in sight soon enough.  That at least makes the parting sweet. We have not been sundered from each other in reality. We are still bound to the Body. We are still whole.

But I am in sorrow. I will miss them dreadfully. I suppose that really I mean that my eyes will miss them and my ears. I will miss their bright young faces and the lilt of their voices. I will miss the strong handshakes and the affectionate hugs. But I do not grieve like those who have no hope. My friends and I are bound by nothing less than Jesus Christ, our righteousness and that defies space and time. We will be together again…but not yet.