So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu

It is 9 am in Chiang Mai (6 pm in California and the rest of you can figure out what time it is where you are.  Do I have to do all the work?)  We begin our trek home at 11:50 pm Thailand time if the plane departs on time.  We have an eight hour layover in Korea.  We leave Seoul at 3 PM ­on Friday, December 13 and through the wonder of the International Dateline we arrive in Los Angeles at 9 AM on Friday, December 13.  That’s right folks, we arrive in Los Angeles 6 hours BEFORE we leave Korea after a 6000 mile, 13 hour flight.

If we didn’t understand the International Dateline and time zones this would seem impossible.  With the right information we are still amazed but we more fully understand how this can be.  I sometimes think that some of the difficult passages in the Bible are like this.  (And there are difficult passages in the Bible.) We don’t have enough background information for it to make total sense.  I’m not talking about the miracles.  Miracles by their very definition are acts by God without submitting to the natural order.  They are not natural, they are super-natural.  They are above the natural. 

I’m talking about how God’s sovereignty intersects with our free choices.  I’m talking about the how of keeping in step with the Holy Spirit.  I’m talking about Rahab lying about the Israeli spies and being blessed.  I’m talking about the sons of God taking the daughters of man as wives.  I’m talking about how there is only one true God, yet He exists as three distinct persons.  Yet despite not having all the information I would like about these issues, I still believe they are true just as I believe that I can leave Seoul at 3 pm on Friday and arrive in Los Angeles at 9 am on Friday.

The Bible was not given to satisfy our curiosity, it was given as a record of what God is like and what He has done, is doing and will continue to do with humanity.  It is a record of our brokenness and His wholeness. It is a record of His offer of eternal life as a free gift through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. I don’t fully understand why He would provide salvation for us as fallen creatures, He didn’t do that with the angels.  But He has pursued us and He has taken on Himself our sin, died in our place and now offers us a full pardon and the gift of Jesus’ righteousness.  Compared to God’s great love and grace extended to all, arriving in Los Angles six hours before leaving Seoul is nothing.