Consider this question: Is God
everything to you? I mean really think about it. Can I be honest with you? To
me, it’s kind of a silly question. Is God everything to me? When I hear that
question, I immediately start examining all the different aspects of my own
life. Do I make God everything in all of the different parts of my life? But if
you really think about the question, it’s not really about me. Part of it is
about me. But I think the bulk of it is about God. Let’s explore this question
together.
“In the beginning, God created the
heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) Before there was anything but God, Himself,
God created for Himself an arena to hold all of His creation. He created
everything that is earth, and everything that isn’t earth. Point being: God
created everything.
He spoke and there was light, He
separated sea from land, He gave life to plants and animals, He breathed and a
universe of hundreds of billions of galaxies each containing hundreds of billions
of stars came together (it’s no wonder He rested on the seventh day).
The poem that is the story of
creation in Genesis 1 has a certain repetition about it. There are more than a
few phrases that occur more than once. Between every day “there was evening and
morning.” Six times, evening and morning transition the reader into the next
day and the next step in God’s creation narrative. Every living thing that is
created has its own ability to reproduce “according to its kind” (a phrase that
occurs 10 times). That’s just to name a couple. This repetition gives the poem
a certain sense of rhythm, like a clock ticking, or a heart beating. And through
this rhythm, this cadence, we, the readers, get this feel from the writer that
the creation that the poem depicts is at work. We are given an image of a
universe that is in motion.
Surely, to
the original readers, the image of a sun that comes and goes taking shifts
opposite of the moon and stars would have been amazing enough. But to us today,
with our knowledge of the cosmos, how much more amazing should it be?! At the
very moment that you are reading this, you are siting on a planet that is
moving 18.5 miles per second around the sun while also rotating at a rate of
over 1,000 mph. Our galaxy, right now, is moving approximately 370 mph through
space.
And think
about you. Your heart today, if you are the average person, will beat around
100,000 times. And it will pump almost 2,000 gallons of blood. Your skin cells
completely regenerate every 7 days. And every 7 years, your skeleton is
completely renewed. Your body is constantly at work. The universe is constantly
in motion.
For
centuries, philosophers have noticed this movement and have tried to explain
it. What is the force behind all that the universe is doing? Why does the
universe have this sense of order about it? What makes the world tick?
Eventually, a Greek philosopher
named Heraclitus identified this driving force, this order, as logos. Heraclitus wrote, “…all entities come to be in accordance
with this Logos.”[i]
Originally a Greek word meaning “word” or “reason”, Heraclitus adopted logos as a word to describe that which
makes “everything flow”. And so philosophers and scientist who sought to find
the order behind the movement of the universe were now in search of the logos.
Somewhere between 500 and 600 years
after Heraclitus’ contribution, a Jewish fisherman named John identified the logos as Jesus (John 1:1). The order
that is about the universe, the force that drives all things, the reason for
creation that the Greeks so earnestly sought after, to the first Christians,
was Jesus. Around the same time as John was writing his Gospel, Paul had this
to say about Jesus to the Christians in Colossae:
15 He is the image of the
invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created: things in
heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers
or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all
things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:15-17)
The first
Christians believed that Jesus was the origin of the creation of all things.
That everything we see around us was made “by him and for him” (Colossians
1:16) and that nothing was made without Him (John 1:3). “The Word” or “the Logos” with which God spoke all of
creation into existence was Jesus. But the early Christians didn’t stop there.
To them, not only was Jesus the reason for creation, He was also what keeps
creation going.
There are
many who view God in the same way they would view a watchmaker. When one builds
a watch, certainly it takes a lot of care and effort. Attention to detail is a
must. But no matter how much the maker puts into the watch, his or her work
will come to an end. Once the watch is built, it must be able to function on
its own. Or else who would buy it? Sure, it’s understandable for the watch to
occasionally require repair, but for the most part, it isn’t continuously
dependent on the watchmaker.
God is not
a creator who put 6 days of hard work into the universe and then set it loose
to tick on its own power. If God had desired to create a world that worked like
that He could have. But He didn’t. Just as Jesus was “the Word” through which
God created the world, He is also the One who sustains it. Jesus, “the Logos,” is the reason for the world’s
movement. He is the force through which “all things hold together” (Colossians
1:17). Just as nothing would exist without Jesus, without Jesus, nothing would
continue to exist. If Jesus was to die (if such a thing was possible) the
universe and everything in it would also.
Take a breath. Take another.
Without Jesus, you don’t do that.[1]
Because of Jesus, there is everything, but without Jesus there is nothing.
When I was in college, I had a job
working with children, most of whom came from poorer, broken homes. During the
summer, the organization that I worked for had a program where kids could come
and receive counseling.
Every morning, I sat by the door
waiting on the kids to arrive, either by a parent’s car or by a government
funded bus. I watched the kids, aging from 6 years old up to 15, walk in the
door and go to whatever room they were sent to. Many of them were happy to be
there. Some of them were not.
I remember one little girl. She was
the youngest girl in our program. For privacy reasons I can’t use her real name
so we will call her “Caroline.” Sometimes Caroline rode the bus, but most
mornings, she was dropped off by her dad. For him, getting her there was easy.
But dropping her off and leaving proved to be much more difficult.
I couldn’t tell you how many times
I saw her fight her hardest to stay with her father. She would kick and she
would scream and tears would pour down her face. It wasn’t that she hated
counseling. She always had a great time once she was in our offices. She simply
didn’t want for Dad to leave. At the moment, Caroline couldn’t bear being away
from her father, even if it was only for half the day. And why should she? Her
dad was everything to her. He provided her with food, water, clothing, a place
to live. When she was sick, he took care of her. When she had to go to school,
he made sure she got there. Everything she needed was provided for her by her
father. He was the reason she was here (on this planet that is, not necessarily
at counseling). And so she clung to him because in her mind he was comfort, he
was home, he was life. To Caroline, her dad was everything.
Whether we
realize it or not, Jesus is everything to us. Whether you are a Christian, a
Muslim, a Buddhist, a Hindu, a Jew, an atheist, etc., Jesus is everything to
you. Whether you are black or white, Republican or Democrat, gay or straight,
rich or poor, Jesus is everything to you. He is the only thing sustaining you.
He is the only thing keeping you here. He’s the reason you got up this morning
and He’s the reason you are reading this right now. It is all because of Jesus!
Whether you believe in Him or not.
It doesn’t
matter how rich you are. No matter how successful you are, no matter how famous
you are, no matter how respected you are, no matter how happy you are, no
matter how good your job is, no matter how great your spouse is, no matter how
well you’re doing in school, no matter who your parents are, no matter how
great your kids are, no matter how much you think you have; if you don’t have
Jesus, you have nothing.
It doesn’t
matter how poor you are. No matter how hungry you are, or how destitute you
are, no matter how outcast you are, no matter how hated you are, no matter how
beaten down you are, no matter how worried you are, no matter how scared you
are, no matter how far behind you are on your bills, no matter how much debt
you owe, no matter how broken your family is, no matter how much junk you have
in your life, no matter how much you think you lack; if you have Jesus, you
have everything.
For the greater part of my life
growing up in church, I thought that I was somehow supposed to make Jesus
everything to me. As if I was doing Jesus a favor. I was under the impression
that Jesus wasn’t a big enough part of my life and I need to make Him bigger.
Certainly, as His followers, we are called to give up everything in order bring
Jesus to the forefront of our lives, but surely the Creator of the Universe
doesn’t need me to make Him
everything. He already is.
Our faith,
as Christians, isn’t us giving Jesus the right to rule and sustain our lives.
It’s us actually recognizing that He already has that right, and then trusting
Him to do so.
Many of us
are like teenagers with good parents. When I was in high school, like most
teenagers, I had a hard time understanding that my parents knew what was best
for me. They just could never get it through their heads that I was wise beyond
my years and bulletproof. Whether it was my mom telling me to, “be careful,” or
my dad letting me know that something, “wasn’t such a good idea,” their advice
was rarely solicited and far from considered. I was perfectly content with
draining my parents’ money, food supply, and hot water. But when it came to
wisdom, I had enough of my own. My image of my parents wasn’t that of
caregivers or my source of guidance, but as two old people who got in my way.[2] DJ
Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince’s “Parents Just Don’t Understand” is certainly
an anthem for an entire generation.
However
much I wanted to ignore my dependence on my parents, that dependence was very
much a reality. I could reject their words as much I wanted, but had my father
decided to cut me off, life would have taken a quite undesirable turn. Thank
God for grace!
Often, Jesus is to us like a parent
is to a teenager. Everything that we are and everything that we have flows from
one source. But, for whatever reason, we have turned Jesus into a parent who’s
provisions and advice we get to pick and choose (or completely ignore, despite
our undeniable dependence on them).
God is a perfect parent. Jesus knows
beyond a shadow of a doubt what is best for us. And if there is one thing we
can learn from the Scriptures, it’s that God provides. We owe everything to
Jesus. Perhaps the right question to ask ourselves is never, “Is Jesus
everything to me?” The answer to that is already certain. Rather, the right
question might be, “Do I realize it?”
[1] In the Hebrew Bible, God is actually referred to as “יהוה” (commonly
translated as “YHWH” or “LORD” in most Christian Bibles) 6,828 times. This word
is actually impossible to pronounce. Many believe that it is the sound of
breathing. Could it be possible that the very thing that you must do in order
to live isn’t to breath, but to say the name of God?!
[2] Please don’t get me wrong. I loved and still love my
parents very much. I simply want to illustrate a point. Love you, Mom and Dad!
