GREEN-LIGHT revolution

This past spring, Tim Chambers gave a talk at Christ’s Church inspired by the old hymn, “Rock of Ages.” He told us the story of the Hebrew nation passing through the Red Sea as God held back the water and all its slimy creatures with his mighty, invisible hand. He told us about their wandering through the dessert, about flakes of manna falling like dew and a rock that, when struck, gushed with streams of water where it was cleft. The story is rich with symbolism.

If you flip past Exodus and turn to Numbers 20, you’ll find Moses still leading the people through their long dessert wanderings. They are thirsty, and God instructs Moses to speak to the rock so that water will flow once again. Instead, he yells at the people and strikes the rock twice with his staff. Water does flow out, but Moses loses the privilege of going with God’s people into the Promised Land because he forgot Who was holy and who was human.

When Tim talked about this story, he suggested that there might be another reason God was upset with Moses. 1 Corinthians 10:4 says, “For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.” The rock that was struck symbolized Jesus Christ. In the same way that Jesus was struck once so that Living Water would gush forth, the rock should have only been struck once. Now that Jesus has been struck, crucified, all we have to do is speak to Him and water is released. That should have been the case with the rock in the dessert, but Moses messed up the symbol.

While I listened to Tim’s talk, I wondered if the lesson could apply to our lives, too. Does God give us instructions which make very little sense at present, but which will be revealed as hugely significant when the story unfolds? I know God has a plan for my life, but I’m beginning to think it’s not just a sequence of prearranged events. It seems that with every twist and turn, he is telling a story about himself that is meant to reveal his perfect wisdom and unfailing love. There have been sorrows and circumstances I wouldn’t choose, instructions which don't make a lot of sense. But I want the story of my life, God’s story, to be told exactly the way He has imagined it. I don’t want to mess up the symbols. While I do have a few questions, I think I’ll save them for the day when I can step back and survey the whole beautiful tapestry of his will and the thread of my life woven in. I suspect at that point, though, my questions will dissolve into wonder and worship.

Going green!

Lynn