Unity
‘Who are you?‘ said the Caterpillar….
Alice replied, rather shyly, ‘I — I hardly know, sir, just at present — at least I know who I WAS when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.’
… I can’t understand it myself to begin with; and being so many different sizes in a day is very confusing.’
‘It isn’t,’ said the Caterpillar.
‘Well, perhaps you haven’t found it so yet,’ said Alice; ‘but when you have to turn into a chrysalis — you will some day, you know — and then after that into a butterfly, I should think you’ll feel it a little queer, won’t you?’
‘Not a bit,’ said the Caterpillar.*
When Moses encountered God in the burning bush and the Lord commanded him to go to Pharaoh to begin the deliverance of the Hebrews, Moses replied, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” (Exod. 3:11). God answered Moses saying He would be with Him and when Moses enquired Whom he should tell the Hebrews had sent him God responded, “I AM Who I AM.” This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” He said, “This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation.” (v.14,15b).
Interesting, isn’t it, that man identifies himself with his lostness, “Who am I” while God identifies Himself with His Self-Existence, “I AM Who I AM.” The Hebrew statement “I AM” derives from the verb “to be or to exist.” By declaring Himself in this way God is saying He is ever-present, eternal, self-sufficient, self-determining, and unchanging. God is One. God is Unity and Diversity. God is Trinity, a word we use to describe this unique three-in-one Unity.
He has made us like Himself, three-in-one, as body, mind, spirit… as offspring, spouse, parent… yet as one. He has given us earth, sea, atmosphere… and told us to multiply… to make many… many for Him… for eternity, as Jesus prayed for as many as will believe, “to be with me where I am, and to see my glory” (John 17:25). And He intends to make believers so intimately connected with Him that we too are “one.” No more, “Who am I?” for we will have reached that completeness spoken of by Paul, that
“…unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ…. no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.” (Eph. 4:13-15).
We don’t yet fully know who or even what we are. But big change is certainly coming. John said, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2). Jesus prayed, “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you… that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity.” (John 17:21, 23).
Now that’s something to work towards! — Something to work towards today.
More tomorrow…
2 thoughts on “Monday, 5/25/20 – Pressing on…”