connecting the dots

Ever feel like there are times when things just come together?

I know we spend most of our lives feeling like things will NEVER come together but then there are those moments when you just kind of sit back and say:

"Hmm, that's pretty nice"

This afternoon was one of those moments.

I was reading in Psalms and the little letter deal on the verse (you know the little letters that mean go to the bottom of the page and most of the time you ignore it because you know that if you go to the bottom of the page its just going to tell you to turn to another part of the Bible and you know that if you do that then you're going to forget about what you're reading at that moment but if you do follow it then you go on a quest through scripture and it's awesome. Phew. ok. done with that. Longest parenthetical statement ever.) and it led me to Isaiah 40 and I was struck with verse 8

ESV style:

"The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God will stand forever"

That was cool just by itself.

But that was just dot #1.

Earlier in Isaiah 40, verse 3 specifically it says

"A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God."

If you're familiar with John the Baptist this is the passage that he quotes when he says that he is like a voice crying out in the wilderness. So my wheels (metaphorically speaking mind you) were already turning thinking about John the Baptist and the gospel of John.

Dot #2.

Then in verse 7 of Isaiah 40 it says

"The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; sure the people are grass."

Ok, so people are grass.

We wither.

We die.

We don't last very long in the grand scheme of things.

There have been many great people in the past who have changed the world.

Yet they all have died and have been mostly forgotten.

Thats Dot #3

Last night me and Jake were talking about one of his textbooks from his New Testament class at HBU. In the book it mentioned that Jesus Christ, whether you like him or not, has had a tremendous impact on history over the last 20 centuries.

2,000 years.

He has withstood the test of time and still manages to be a central part of society despite his departure from earth over 2,000 years ago.

So why is this?

Like I said, my mind was already thinking about John the Baptist and the gospel of John and I remembered that John 1:1 says

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

if you fastforward to verse14 it says

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth"

and that would be dot #4

Hmmm.

So lets see.

The Word of our God will stand forever.

People are like grass so we wither and die.

We don't stand the test of time.

In the beginning was the Word.

The Word was God.

The Word became flesh among us.

Jesus.

He is killed.

He rises from the dead.

He stands the test of time.

The Word of our God will stand forever.

"That's pretty nice."