A thought for the day…
There is an intrinsic oneness to the universe and all of creation is meant to be brought together underneath this oneness. This is evidenced by our deep need for connection. This same intrinsic oneness of the universe manifests itself through our communal desires. We join clubs, churches, activities, because we experience a sense of oneness there, a sense of community. This is how we were created to live.
There is an intrinsic oneness to the universe and all of creation is meant to be brought together underneath this oneness. This is evidenced by our deep need for connection. This same intrinsic oneness of the universe manifests itself through our communal desires. We join clubs, churches, activities, because we experience a sense of oneness there, a sense of community. This is how we were created to live.
The universe began in Genesis with a strong sense of connection, everything and everyone was connected. The word used here is shalom, or peace. Adam and Eve lived in perfect shalom, in perfect peace, but not just peace, oneness, with one another and with God. If the Garden of Eden is the example of how we were created to live, then there is no doubt that we were created to live communally.
Now the oneness that was created in the garden was broken fairly quickly, and we began to wander around the desert. The desert is a place of isolation, away from any sort of community. For hundreds of years we tried to find our way back to our rightful state. And as we, today, wander through the deserts of our lives, we long for that same community, that same connection. We join a sports team, a committee, a small group, a church, because humanity is on a lifelong search for communal oneness.
God’s plan was to redeem our broken oneness through Jesus. And now we are all brothers and sisters in Christ, under one head, one body, part of one family. And I believe God desires for his church to be the quintessential example for this oneness. The New Testament letters of Paul implore their recipients to think of themselves as part of a whole, part of the body that is the church, with Christ as the head, but that each part must be unified and stand together. Paul spends most of the New Testament making a case for this, yet I look around and the church is getting more divided every single day. This is backwards. We are breaking apart when we should be coming together. Let us in the coming days, weeks, and years begin to heed Paul’s instruction in whatever way we can to reclaim the rightful identity and oneness of God’s church, a place where love binds us together in the community that we have wandered lonely through the desert to find.
-jon
Now the oneness that was created in the garden was broken fairly quickly, and we began to wander around the desert. The desert is a place of isolation, away from any sort of community. For hundreds of years we tried to find our way back to our rightful state. And as we, today, wander through the deserts of our lives, we long for that same community, that same connection. We join a sports team, a committee, a small group, a church, because humanity is on a lifelong search for communal oneness.
God’s plan was to redeem our broken oneness through Jesus. And now we are all brothers and sisters in Christ, under one head, one body, part of one family. And I believe God desires for his church to be the quintessential example for this oneness. The New Testament letters of Paul implore their recipients to think of themselves as part of a whole, part of the body that is the church, with Christ as the head, but that each part must be unified and stand together. Paul spends most of the New Testament making a case for this, yet I look around and the church is getting more divided every single day. This is backwards. We are breaking apart when we should be coming together. Let us in the coming days, weeks, and years begin to heed Paul’s instruction in whatever way we can to reclaim the rightful identity and oneness of God’s church, a place where love binds us together in the community that we have wandered lonely through the desert to find.
-jon
