Have you ever looked at one of those Rorschach inkblot tests? I think at some point we have all seen one. Maybe on a tv show or something. You are shown these random inkblots and when you see them you are supposed to say what they remind you of. And then they use your perception of those spots and analyze your personality characteristics and emotional functions. Personally, they all look pretty sinister to me. I never see cute bunnies or playing kittens; they look like flying monsters and bugs splatted on a windshield. Shoot, I just gave away my deepest and most hidden thoughts to you...
For those who don't believe in God, in a Divine Creator of all things, everything they see is a result of haphazard chaos. There is no order, no thought processes in the planning of it all. Just a mess that happened by accident. I quoted N.D. Wilson in a previous post and am going to do so again. This time from his book, "Death by Living", it is a bit long, but bear with me. "Imagine a world that is truly and intrinsically and explosively accidental. Explain time in that world, in the world with no narrative and no narrator. Why time? Why progression? Before hydrogen had its alleged and infamous hiccup, did something aphysical and philosophically flammable snafu first? Perhaps nirvanic nothingness is more unstable than we thought; after all, it would have to spontaneously generate progression and causation (as laws and/or authoritative patterns) before hyper-hydrogen could get flatulent and before that flatulence could begin seeking radically sophisticated order. (Sidenote: By nirvanic nothingness I mean nothingness - nothingness as in what your teeth see - only less, nothingness as in take a glass and empty it, erase the glass, remove the table on which it sat, part the electrons in the air were it once was and step between them into the black coldness of space, and then remove the cold and the blackness, remove the ability of anything to take up space, remove space, remove causation, and while you're at it, remove God.) But we're not done. We need an emptier grasp of this concept. Nothingness (no space, no time, no spirit)...any nothing any nowhere could suddenly become any something any somewhere - and it could arrive with new laws for its new reality...Atheist Fortune Cookie: 'There is only the material world. Don't ask me where hyper-hydrogen came from, but I am pretty sure it blew up because I'm here (I think). The 'laws' of nature and reality and logic and morality are non-binding and are merely internal descriptions of the accidental explosion by another part of that same explosion and are likely to further explode or implode into something else as stuff continues to splatter around. You have no soul, and love and loyalty are chemical by-products of the accident and have no authority as the explosion neglected to accidentally create any. You have no purpose, no deeper meaning, and are no more valuable than any other mobile composting machine, engulfing and expelling until you are engulft and expelt. Also, you have no soul, the concept of you is itself shaky, as your self-identity is simply the result of an arbitrary atomic boundary imagined by static electricity in spongey tissue inside a spherical bone that appears to be proud of any carbon-based meat that happens to be electronically connected to it. You're not important. Your molecules prefer fragmenting to binding and will inevitably and absolutely fly apart. So suck on that, sucker of thatness. Also you should be open to new opportunities this month.' "*
We are not this random inkblot on a piece of toilet paper in some cosmic realm of futility. We are not a mistake. We were not put here by some happenchance expulsion of gas coming from the intestines of the universe. We are as the Bible says, fearfully and wonderfully made. Formed in our mother's womb, as she was formed in her mother's womb, et cetera, et cetera.
We are not, as so many are told 'a stain on society', a piece of excrement with no regard for anything or anyone. We are stained, yes; but we are stained with the blood of Jesus. We are stained with the life force of the Son of God. We are stained with His image, His likeness. And just like that Rorschach test, where the interpretation of that inkblot stain reveals the innermost parts of a person, we will be revealed by the stain we wear. Do we wear the characteristics of the One who made us? As we are revealed, do we show our true colors or His colors? Are we loving, forgiving, merciful, kind, gracious, patient. Or instead of a permanent tattoo stain of God on us and in us, are we wearing a temporary tattoo (my granddaughter wears these sometimes, they look great the first day, but by day 2 they are cracking a bit and by day 3 they are just a vague semblance of a princess or a heart or star). Do we live that life when others are watching, only to let our true selves out when alone? Are our actions consistent with what we profess? Are we a 'Sunday go-to-meeting' Christian and live like hell the rest of the week?
The word stain is defined as a spot not easily removed or a foreign matter that penetrates material leaving a discoloration. I want my life to be so stained by God that I am no longer seen. I want that stain to have dominance in my life. To color everything that I am, and everything that I do. That when I am unfolded and shown to the world, the inkblot they see is as picture of Jesus and it changes those around me.
*Quote taken from N.D. Wilson's book, Death by Living.
For those who don't believe in God, in a Divine Creator of all things, everything they see is a result of haphazard chaos. There is no order, no thought processes in the planning of it all. Just a mess that happened by accident. I quoted N.D. Wilson in a previous post and am going to do so again. This time from his book, "Death by Living", it is a bit long, but bear with me. "Imagine a world that is truly and intrinsically and explosively accidental. Explain time in that world, in the world with no narrative and no narrator. Why time? Why progression? Before hydrogen had its alleged and infamous hiccup, did something aphysical and philosophically flammable snafu first? Perhaps nirvanic nothingness is more unstable than we thought; after all, it would have to spontaneously generate progression and causation (as laws and/or authoritative patterns) before hyper-hydrogen could get flatulent and before that flatulence could begin seeking radically sophisticated order. (Sidenote: By nirvanic nothingness I mean nothingness - nothingness as in what your teeth see - only less, nothingness as in take a glass and empty it, erase the glass, remove the table on which it sat, part the electrons in the air were it once was and step between them into the black coldness of space, and then remove the cold and the blackness, remove the ability of anything to take up space, remove space, remove causation, and while you're at it, remove God.) But we're not done. We need an emptier grasp of this concept. Nothingness (no space, no time, no spirit)...any nothing any nowhere could suddenly become any something any somewhere - and it could arrive with new laws for its new reality...Atheist Fortune Cookie: 'There is only the material world. Don't ask me where hyper-hydrogen came from, but I am pretty sure it blew up because I'm here (I think). The 'laws' of nature and reality and logic and morality are non-binding and are merely internal descriptions of the accidental explosion by another part of that same explosion and are likely to further explode or implode into something else as stuff continues to splatter around. You have no soul, and love and loyalty are chemical by-products of the accident and have no authority as the explosion neglected to accidentally create any. You have no purpose, no deeper meaning, and are no more valuable than any other mobile composting machine, engulfing and expelling until you are engulft and expelt. Also, you have no soul, the concept of you is itself shaky, as your self-identity is simply the result of an arbitrary atomic boundary imagined by static electricity in spongey tissue inside a spherical bone that appears to be proud of any carbon-based meat that happens to be electronically connected to it. You're not important. Your molecules prefer fragmenting to binding and will inevitably and absolutely fly apart. So suck on that, sucker of thatness. Also you should be open to new opportunities this month.' "*
We are not this random inkblot on a piece of toilet paper in some cosmic realm of futility. We are not a mistake. We were not put here by some happenchance expulsion of gas coming from the intestines of the universe. We are as the Bible says, fearfully and wonderfully made. Formed in our mother's womb, as she was formed in her mother's womb, et cetera, et cetera.
We are not, as so many are told 'a stain on society', a piece of excrement with no regard for anything or anyone. We are stained, yes; but we are stained with the blood of Jesus. We are stained with the life force of the Son of God. We are stained with His image, His likeness. And just like that Rorschach test, where the interpretation of that inkblot stain reveals the innermost parts of a person, we will be revealed by the stain we wear. Do we wear the characteristics of the One who made us? As we are revealed, do we show our true colors or His colors? Are we loving, forgiving, merciful, kind, gracious, patient. Or instead of a permanent tattoo stain of God on us and in us, are we wearing a temporary tattoo (my granddaughter wears these sometimes, they look great the first day, but by day 2 they are cracking a bit and by day 3 they are just a vague semblance of a princess or a heart or star). Do we live that life when others are watching, only to let our true selves out when alone? Are our actions consistent with what we profess? Are we a 'Sunday go-to-meeting' Christian and live like hell the rest of the week?
The word stain is defined as a spot not easily removed or a foreign matter that penetrates material leaving a discoloration. I want my life to be so stained by God that I am no longer seen. I want that stain to have dominance in my life. To color everything that I am, and everything that I do. That when I am unfolded and shown to the world, the inkblot they see is as picture of Jesus and it changes those around me.
*Quote taken from N.D. Wilson's book, Death by Living.