Blog # 142 Builders

Blog # 142 Builders Some of us old timers will remember among the toys we used to play with were Lincoln Logs erector sets and building blocks. You start with a big box of many pieces and put them together piece by piece until you had built perhaps a bridge a house or a store. This year it occurred to me to reflect back upon these experiences from long ago and apply my recollections to our celebration of the Easter Season. Our life is something like the box of blocks Lincoln Logs or the pieces in our erector set. There are just so many pieces in our box. As life goes on we use them up. The time will come when there are no more left. Our life will be over. Applying this to the Easter Season it came out this way: From all eternity God has determined the number of years we shall live here on earth, the number of pieces in our box. We are in the process of building our unique eternal name, the name by which God will call us at the instant of our death. As it was in our building a house or a bridge, putting one block upon another, and coupling one piece with another, so it is with our life's story and the eternal name we are building as the years go on. A big difference lies in the fact as children we could take our bridges and buildings down when we were finished playing with them, put them back into our box, and use them again. In real life, however, we get an opportunity of using our years but once. 2011 will never come again. Several questions come to mind. Do I have an overall goal for my life? Do I realize the connection between all of the days and years of my life? What single thing, if any am I putting together as the years go by? Am I merely taking the pieces out of my box and setting them aside one by one rather than building something I desire and can recognize? Am I aware of a plan purpose or goal God desires for me to achieve that is uniquely mine? What is the value of this plan of God for me personally? What degree of commitment to it do I desire and experience? How does my commitment or lack of it show itself in my everyday experience of life, in the time I spend or do not spend in prayer, in my effort or lack of effort to grow in holiness, in my relationships with my family friends and Church? What heavy questions! For us who believe in Jesus there is a single answer that covers them all. The single name of every bridge and building we are called to put together is love. All creation is called into existence and has it goal one way or another in God and God is love. The full meaning of this truth is beyond the limited capacity of our human mind to comprehend. In the life death and resurrection of Jesus it was realized to the fullest extent possible here on earth. God's infinite love was limited by the humanity of Jesus,as it is in ours, but was unobstructed by His faithfulness and perfect obedience to the Father's will. Jesus was all the Father wanted Him to be. In Jesus our goal is the same, to be all the Father desires us to be.