G.K. Chesterton’s “Orthodoxy” is one of my favorite books. Chesterton was a brilliant writer, best known for “The Man Who Was Thursday” and the popular Father Brown detective stories. He was an agnostic until forty-eight when he trusted Christ as his savior.
Chesterton devotes a section of his book “Orthodoxy” to reflections on what he refers to as God’s magical universe. Wondrous and alive, the universe emanates God’s life and beauty. It is not a piece of clockwork. It is a living thing.
I love the illustration Chesterton gives - children and their boundless energy. How often have we played with a child, picking him up, tossing her in the air, only to hear over and over, “Do it again!”
Listen to what he says following this illustration of children -
“Grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon.”
Then comes one of my favorite descriptions of our God - “It may be that He (God) has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”
That phrase in our New Testament, translated “eternal life,” means far more than going to heaven when we die. It could just as easily be translated “life of the ages.” And in recent years, even as my physical body declines, my spirit grows stronger.
Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are begin renewed day by day. (2 Corinthians 4:18)
I was listening recently to an interview and heard one of the best descriptions of joy I’ve ever heard - joy is exuberance for life. More than ever before these days (having just turned sixty-five), I am experiencing that exuberance. Sherri and I were praying and talking together last night, and both of us feel like the best days of our lives and ministry are ahead of us, waiting to be experienced in all their fulness.
In his first letter, the apostle John describes the stages of spiritual maturity. We begin, he says, as little children who experience the forgiveness of our sins. In time, we become young adults, overcoming the evil one and the ways of the world. Eventually, as we grow in Christ, we become fathers and mothers who, in John’s words, “know Him who is from the beginning.” (See I John 2:12-14)
As God’s eternal life of the ages grows in us through the person of His Son, Jesus, we grow strong in spirit. The exuberance of life that comes from the indescribable joy of God’s presence radiates from our lives. Yes, we grow older, weaker, slower, and lose a bit of that youthful energy, at least physically. But as our faith continues to grow, we rise up and begin to experience more and more of the youthfulness of eternal life.
Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not grow faint. (Isaiah 40:30-31)
In Christ,
Dan
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