Have you ever tried to grab a dollar bill that is falling with just your thumb and index finger? Try it! Seems easy, right? Yet the bill seems to move just when you think you’ve guessed it’s next position in flight. Maddened, you try again. This time! This time you’ll get it. Yet the capture still eludes your concentrative pinch. That’s a bit how life feels right now…I keep trying to figure out the path of it, but it continues to escape my mind’s grasp. From an invisible virus to a very visible election. From government lockdowns and quarantines to very unleashed riots and protests from all sides. I try to grasp the falling bill of life but it lands untouched on the ground again.
In the midst of the chaos outside of my home I find that I try to grip control inside my home. I find solace in a regular schedule, teaching my kids, keeping house, and putting things in place. When my kids dismiss this desire by being well, kids, I frantically try to put everything back in place in order to appease the pandemonium inside me. Yet it never seems to calm the angst of my heart. Life out of my house and in my house continues to slip past my grasping grip.
I kept hearing people say they were glad 2020 is over. I can only assume that they imagined 2021 could not be any worse. Well it only took a few days to see this ideal crushed. The chaos, anger, finger pointing, and disillusionment has continued. The tumbling bill of life continues to plummet wildly!
In God’s providence we have been studying US history, Old Testament history, and catechism questions on the ten commandments and the Lord’s prayer. We have studied why the Pilgrims came to America and how that affected the Native Americans who were already present. We then moved to the Revolutionary War and how Samuel Adams was one of the first Americans to skew an event to promote the rebel’s cause in order to insinuate people to fight the abusive powers of the king. We talked about Thomas Jefferson inheriting slaves and him not wanting to keep slavery going…yet he did. Then we watched Hamilton and saw how an intelligent patriot lost the heart of the people due to a couple of really bad choices.
The Old Testament likewise, has shown us how there is no perfect leader…all of them have made huge mistakes that kicked them out of the garden, almost had their wife taken by another man because he told him she was his sister, got drunk and naked before their kids, sold a brother into slavery, had arrogance that kept them from the promise land, murdered a mighty man and took his wife, married women who led them away from the One True God, and resulted in a country being conquered, dragged away, and made slaves by Babylon and Persia for 70 years. All along we discussed how they failed the rules and boundaries the Lord gave them for their own good because they thought they were wise in their own eyes.
What a disastrous history of this nation and world. But the amazing thing is the HIS in HIStory. We have often come back to the covenant that God made with Moses. Back in the time of Mesopotamia and Sumer, covenants were made by splitting a bull in half and both parties walking through the split bull signifying that if either party breaks their part of the covenant, they would become like this bull…split open. God made a covenant with Moses: Moses and his people needed to follow the commandments of God and God would keep them as His people, He would save them. Then Moses split the bull. But this is where everything changed. God put Moses in a dream state and God alone walked through the bull. He was showing Moses that He would keep both sides of the covenant. And He did…and He Has.
What has this done for me and the kids? Through this election and year we have talked about how there is no leader, family, or person who does everything right. We all fall short of God’s standards. These sins have very real consequences but they shouldn’t define us. Being made in God’s image defines us, not our mistakes and sins. We pay the consequences here on earth, but God ultimately paid the penalty for us breaking His covenant by more than splitting a bull, He sent His perfect Son who did obey Him perfectly to die a horrific death on a cross thereby paying the price of the covenant He made way back with Moses. People in the Bible failed to be the hero. The Pilgrims failed to be heroes. Patriot Rebels failed to be righteous heroes. Presidents, governors, rioters, protestors failed to be the hero. Only Jesus is.
I was writing this before church today but didn’t finish it. As we drove, we listened to Shai Linne’s kids album and I was struck how he had a song that fit exactly what I was processing! I’m just going to show you the last verse and chorus though.
If you notice when we read God’s Word today
The greatest saints have their flaws on full display
And it was written down for us in order that we may
Recognize that Christ is the only way
Adam ate forbidden fruit and lost his life
Abraham got scared and lied about his wife
Sarah laughed to herself when she heard God’s promise
Rebekah encouraged her son to be dishonest
Aaron used crafts to make a golden calf
Moses got mad, struck the rock with his staff
David sinned greatly- even lost his baby
And Jacob? He was just all around shady
The point is not to make light of our flaws
But to show that every one of us needs the cross
So as we read the Bible, it’s important that we see this
There’s only one hero and His name is Jesus
[Chorus]
Adam wasn’t good enough
Noah wasn’t good enough
Abram wasn’t good enough
It’s only Jesus
Isaac wasn’t good enough
Jacob wasn’t good enough
Joseph wasn’t good enough
It’s only Jesus
Moses wasn’t good enough
Joshua wasn’t good enough
Samuel wasn’t good enough
It’s only Jesus
David wasn’t good enough
Daniel wasn’t good enough
Jonah wasn’t good enough
It’s only Jesus
So as this year continues it’s spastic fall to the ground, remember, we will never be able to grasp it. We weren’t made too. We were made to trust the one who holds the whole world in His hands.