On a Fall afternoon we drove along a country road, drinking in the harvest-time splendour and our souls were replenished. Everywhere we looked we saw the finger-prints of God. Autumn is the time when the Lord lights the candles in the trees. All around us ... resplendent colour, ravishing loveliness, sparkling radiance; how much beauty can a heart hold? Then, when we come to worship this Creator-God, we understand that He created this universe for us and created us to be master in earth and sea and sky. But we turned dominion over to a cruel usurper and God created another order out of the confusion of ruin. It staggers and overwhelms my comprehension that the Altogether Lovely One, Who created unblemished beauty, became sin for us so that we might become all we were created to be.
Redemption required a Cross and it is only through the Cross of Jesus Christ that we begin to fulfill all that we were created for. As I thought about the cost God had to pay, suddenly, unexpectedly, these words flashed into my mind and lingered poignantly:
The hammer pounded,
the Blood flowed,
the Creator of beauty was dead – by a violent, brutal, ugly death;
and the demons danced!
But the demons were so wrong. Satan had not won! Still they try to deceive us and lead us to discouragement.
Let us come to the Cross and learn the intense, personal sweetness of
"I am my Beloved's and He is mine."
I want to persevere in exploring the full meaning but I do know that: the hammer pounded out not destruction but TRUTH.
- the Blood flowed not to an ending but to a
ceaseless, inner-working of cleansing, healing
and abundant LIFE through the Eternal Spirit.
- the "supposed" victory dance of the vile
deceivers turned quickly to agonized
recognition of the crushing defeat of Satan
and signalled their eternal doom;
AND THE RESURRECTION OF BEAUTY
Let us determine to come and keep coming to the Cross; to never get away from the Cross. God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians 6:14).
Because He has made each of us a new creation, we can increasingly learn to delight in what God, the Creator, delights in. The undeniable glory of this fallen earth cannot be compared to the grandeur of the New Heaven and the New Earth. The fifth chapter of the Revelation reveals that Jesus will take back the title-deed and He will make all things new. We are being prepared to live forever in timeless, unparalleled, radiant beauty.
