I NEVER THOUGHT I COULD NOT HEAR (CONSCIENCE)

Today I read a devotional that suggested that our natural conscience faces the highest goal that a person knows.  Only when it is focused on God, though, is one on the best track.*  I was reminded of Proverbs 20:12, “Ears that hear and eyes that see – the LORD makes both of the them.”
Comments:
This proverb first teases people to think by creating a pause that makes the audience want more.  If I were to say in a conversation, “Ears that hear and eyes that see,” and stop, the listener would think or say, “OK, so what about ears and eyes?  What are you saying?  Finish your thought.”  Now that I have their attention, I finish, “They are made by God.”
Secondly, this conclusion challenges the audience to ponder what the point is.  The teaching here operates on two levels.  On the first level, it may cause one to pause and marvel at the wonder of our sensory perceptions.  How is it that we do hear and see?  Only God could do this!  The second level is deeper.  As a proverb, this saying is meant to impart wisdom.  Hearing and seeing are also spiritual faculties.  To really “hear” means to obey.  To really “see” means to have an enlightened path.  These, then, are faculties opened to their fullest by a person in relationship with God.  Therefore, this proverb prompts us to ask, “Do I really hear?  Do I really see?  Am I in close communion with God?”
Application:
I will leave the development of application to the reader.  Here, though, is a poem/song that I wrote in application to myself.

I NEVER THOUGHT I COULD NOT HEAR#

Verse 1
I never thought I could not hear, until I heard my Lord.
I never knew where I belonged, until he said, “With me.”

Chorus
The Lord who makes the ears that hear and forms the eyes that see.
He gently whispered in my ear and showed his love for me.

Verse 2
I thought I was a righteous man, until he came near me.
I never clearly knew my shame, until I knelt to him.

Verse 3
I never thought I could not see, until I saw my Lord.
And now my world has opened wide, with life and joy and peace.

Lord Jesus, I want ears that hear with obedience and eyes that see and follow your way.  Bless me with such ears and eyes.  Amen.
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*The devotional reading was from Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, May 13.
#If requested, I will send a simple musical score of the song with the melody line and the chords.

LOSS AND GRIEF: IN CHRIST

I have been thinking about the loss and grief one experiences over a loved one.  I do not claim that the following thoughts are explicit teaching in Scripture, but I think they cohere with it.

In regard to Adam and Eve, Genesis 2:24 states, “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and unites with his wife, and they become a new family [literally “one flesh”] (NET).  This translation has captured the sense of “one flesh” that is often misunderstood on a popular level.  It is not about sexual union.  It is about the beginning of a new kinship unit (“one flesh”).

I think there is a psychological truth about this relationship and its loss.  There are many examples in our natural world of discrete elements uniting to form a system in which new properties emerge.  The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.*  I suggest that in personal relationships something new emerges in the nature of our existence.  When I married, I did not merely have an identity label change to “husband.”  In a real sense, in my relationship with my wife, a new aspect of my existence emerged that would not be there were we apart.  Our relationship has formed part of who I am.  Therefore, when someone in a close relationship dies, we experience not just a loss of their presence, but also a loss to an aspect of our existence, to who we were.  The loss and grief are deep.

A theological truth about Christ helps with this sense of loss.  Faith in God creates a participatory relationship.  One entrusts one’s life in God.  The Greek NT expression of faith in Christ, pisteo eis. means “entrusting into” Christ.  It creates a new emergent reality.  Paul, particularly in Colossians and Romans 8, addresses believers’ struggles by teaching them about the significance of being a new creation “in Christ.”  Moreover, we are “in Christ” in community jointly with others.  What struck me recently was the thought that for those “in Christ,” when a loved one dies, our relationship with that loved one has not really come to an end.  Being jointly together in Christ means that relationship still exists.  Even though we miss that person’s presence, who we were in that relationship is still there within the being of God.  I find that thought comforting.

Father, bless those who are grieving over loss of loved ones.  Comfort them with your Presence.  Comfort them not just with the thought that they will once again meet those loved ones, but with the awareness that those relationships still exist in Christ.  Amen.
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*Probably the most universally known example of emergent properties is how the elements of hydrogen and oxygen (gasses at normal temperatures) come together to form water molecules with properties completely unlike the individual elements.