Thankfulness When God Makes No Sense
It’s so good he is way bigger than we are.
This picture is a fractal. I have an app on my phone that generates them.
Fractals are never-ending patterns.
They are infinitely complex, and yet they are self-similar patterns across different scales. This means if you zoom in or out the same patterns are present.
Fractals are created by repeating a simple process over and over in an ongoing feedback loop. To be able to see and appreciate the power of fractals mathematically first required the power of computers as developed by 1980. Once seen, however, it became clear that fractal-like images are detectable throughout nature. We see them in the geometry of trees, rivers, coastlines, mountains, clouds, seashells, hurricanes, and even kitten fur colors.
So here is my question.
Does the gospel story behave like a fractal?
The big picture is Jesus taking up his cross and allowing himself to be crucified. He died and was buried.
Now to this point he was no different than anyone else in that he lived and then died. Zooming in a little, no one before or after him lived the way Jesus did. He was truly unique. Sinless, in fact.
But there is more — and this is really the gospel part. He was raised from the dead, and because he overcame death being the sinless Lamb of God he became our atonement — meaning our substitute for sin. This means we can attach ourselves to his story. We can become the ones he died for.
But wait. That word atonement. That didn’t start with Jesus. There was an earlier sacrificial pattern. My point is that the Bible is filled with repeat patterns, and yet the focal point, the foundation stone is Jesus. Looking at the rest of the Bible through the gospel story shows us this pattern I believe set in motion by God before the world was formed.
But wait again. The story with its gospel-repeating patterns didn’t end way back when. It continues and can even be seen in our lives today.
And [Jesus] said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
Luke 9:23-24 (ESV)
Living a gospel-fractal life means we can be too close to our own crosses of suffering and confusion to see and appreciate the bigger picture.
This is where thankfulness becomes important. It helps us review the parts of the gospel pattern we already know and it lifts us above our current circumstances so we can understand that God knows what he is doing and he will see it through to completion. Knowing this about God is why, even in the middle of the chaos of this life, we can rest and even smile.
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
What an interesting and inspirational way to look at things!