The Spirit of Redeeming

 

This morning I was listening to a guided meditation.  The leader suggested picturing all the people on earth before the coming of the Christ.  What were they doing?  What did it look like?
Then I was instructed to picture God standing somewhere in the heavens observing this same scene.  What did God think?  How was the decision made that some kind of redemption was needed?

My picture of earth was war, people fighting, yelling, being unkind, trying to make sense of life, striving to care for their families, struggling to do the right things.  I imagined God saying, "We need to help these people.  We need to show them a way to live that will bring peace and joy and happiness into their lives.  This is not what I intended."

God's solution was to send Christ.  If we observed the way he lived and worked at living the same way, our world would be a place of peace and joy; at least more of the time.  Could this actually be the ultimate salvation?  I'm not saying Christ's sacrifice was not part of it, but it did make me think that his death may have been almost a natural consequence of living the type of life that was so opposed to what was going on. 

I have observed that when you question, when you speak something that may cause the "normal" way of thinking to be challenged, the opposition rises up.  We get so uncomfortable when someone questions our ways; when someone suggests things may be different than we have believed.  When we are asked to at least consider living our lives differently, changing our hearts and our minds something in us rebels.

I want Christ's life and not just his death to be my salvation and the salvation of the world. I hope as I grow older I can continue to be pliable, soft, moldable, changeable.  It's hard.  It means sometimes doing things that aren't easy.