It was a struggling run today. 80 degrees or so again, intermittent light wind. Many thoughts. So I decided to go all the way around the lake this time, but spent a good deal of time walking and praying too.
The mansions - it's funny, maybe they look different when you're wearing your sunglasses or something, but they've been catching my eyes more often this week. Not that I'm lusting after living in them...I don't know what I'd do with so much space! (Well, actually, I do, I'd probably just invite everyone to live w/me! ;P)
They made me think of a discussion I had this week w/a guy at The Beat Coffee - he was suggesting that maybe the Bible didn't really have much to say about the afterlife to us and was more concerned about social justice. I think it's likely he was just swinging the pendulum in the neglected direction out of reaction to the imbalances he'd experienced in the churches he'd been in, which I know I'VE certainly done a time or two - it often needs doing before we find a balance... In fact we're probably never perfectly balanced and our pendulums nearly always off center, but I think they swing less wildly perhaps as we grow older and we self-correct ourselves much sooner after we've seen a few more rotations 'round the sun.
Anyway, THAT was not the point I meant to make here (and at the time I think I only said that part of the hope of eternity in scripture is that everything is seen and known and justice will eventually be given perfectly)... but it made me look at these wonderful houses and think of what Jesus said to his disciples in the book of John when he was foretelling his departure and they were kind of freaking out -
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."
I think it's interesting that the King James Version (KJV) translated it as 'My father's house has many mansions'...and the New International Version (NIV) says 'rooms'. I can't see it mattering too much one way or another. If someone who knows everything about you and loves you enough to die for you creates - not a mix tape/cd but a guest room or guest house for you to be near them, then I can't see that it could fail to be exactly what you need and desire. And if we have any inkling of who he is, THAT is the real focus - more important than Bono or the president or whatever person of importance you would love to be near, as any creativity or intelligence they have all reside in him and come from him! Could you imagine Jesus singing in the evening while you are falling asleep next door? In Revelation 1:15, his voice is "like the voice of many waters". It's a good image to me (although perhaps it's terrifying in person). I'm a water girl. I pray best beside water. Part of this may be being Minnesotan.
Well, I'm totally rambling today when I'm supposed to just be talking about my run. The run was very intermittent and hard and I was thankful for my ipod and Hoi Polloi, Ingrid Michaelson, The Ivys, and Over the Rhine today (H-O). Oh I hope the summer cools off a bit!
* photo lifted from luxist.com
* not my favorite mansion - my favorite had it's work done by 'Cousins Brick & Stone' which I cannot find a website for! - and looks like a large Hansel & Gretel sort of cottage
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