Thoughts on Zimmerman and Trayyvon

There is no dividing wall of hostility in Christ Jesus. There is no Jew or Gentile, no male or female, no black or white. No Zimmerman or Trayyvon.

"Eph 2:13-14 But now in Christ Jesus you who were once afar off are made near by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, He making us both one, and He has broken down the middle wall of partition between us,"

We are hurt by people, their selfish actions, their pride; we hurt people the same way. There are some actions that make forgiveness a hard pill to swallow because we are truly hurt. We must remember Christ in these situations for in the cross, He unites the offender and the offended and gives them life the same way He united God and Man. Only if we could come to the cross!

"2Co 5:16-21  So as we now know no one according to flesh, but even if we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we no longer know Him so. So that if any one is in Christ, that one is a new creature; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

And all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation;  whereas God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and putting the word of reconciliation in us.

Then we are ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as God exhorting through us, we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.  For He has made Him who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. "

The Zimmerman verdict has surely hurt many African Americans and Africans the world over because a white man has walked free after he murdered a black teenager but we who now see the world in the eyes of Christ must not take the sides of race, but  be found in the love of Christ, where we are forgiven, where we can forgive, where we are comforted, where we can comfort. Where we can receive love, where we can give love.

Selah.

Of stories telling other stories.

Stories teach many lessons. Most stories though usually without knowing it, speak of the One whose story we all are in: Romance - we speak of His love for us, for His church; action - we speak of His jealousy and constant contending for us; dramas - we speak of His patience through our unfaithfulness and perplexity; horrors - we affirm we have an enemy; comedy - we remember His joy is our strength; animations - we dream of the final day when finally we shall see Him.

Many stories inadvertently speak of our Lord, so I go beyond the story and consider the everlasting story of a community of beings who once hovered over the waters trying to find a home; of a one being yet three with one who set in place a home for one they would make out of their own image. Of a being whom they desired live in them and they in Him. Of an enemy who stole their creation away, of a temporary setback in their quest for a home.

Then we see endless stories all leading to the day one of them would live as the creation and restore all things to order and bring about a unity of them and the being they created.

Many of us are groaning for a saviour, someone to restore us to the Father, to the community of God. If we could but recognise His name! He is not Superman, or Captain Planet, or Iron Man, or Romeo, or Okwonkwo, or Rubashov or Golola Moses or whatever our simple minds have named our heroes - His name is Yeshua - The Lord Saves, Emmanuel - God is with us and He longs for a people He calls home.

He speaks all the time. He might shouting out His Son's name through that story you're reading. I pray you hear.

Selah. Amen.

The poem you are.

They say I write too much about love
And not just too much about it but too often,
That I have no time for other pursuits
Like money and health and God,

That I risk ending up a dreamer
With a lofty castle in the air but without throne
A man whose thoughts look as divine as a peacock
But which never lift off to fly, very much like the dear bird.

They say I should take it easy, calm down, breathe a little,
That I should not again put my heart to the test,
They tell me , they tell me lots of things

The man with the white collar and the long beard
Walks up to me and says
"Son, do not awaken love before it's time,"

Mama tells me with earnest voice
"You can't hurry love,
No you just have to wait"

The boys say
"Love won't put bread on the table,
Work your behind off man".

And I wish I could believe them.
I wish you could let me believe them
But no.....

You just have to say those words the way you do,
Speak as a proud linguist yet at the same time
As a delighted princess who chats with her mother.

I mean look how you make your steps
As though you were ascending a throne
And yet at the same time were walking with friends

There are jewels in your eyes and they are yet to have a name
When they look at mine eyes, with your day breaking smile
I am weak to think I can put off love.

See you're a poem in a person, right from your body to your spirit,
And my dear woman, I cannot lie to you no more than to self
There's so little  you could do to discourage me from love.

Your mind is a treasury of wisdom,
You rivet me with tales, and proverbs and riddles
You have learned the word that said, in all your getting get wisdom.

Your spirit a force enriched and enlivened
Dead to what we once gloried in
Alive to an eternal King, you the daughter of a princess

Your beauty, I have no brushes to paint
Yet one look at you and you become
All the muse I will ever need.

Can I put off love then, dear woman
Whose very being draws mine from body to spirit
How shall I not love you after reading a poem
As wholesome as you?