Life is but a Stage
November 27, 2009 // By: Bob Hamp // 3 Comments
The stage is set. Everything is in place. God has this knack for telling stories and being in them at the same time. He has a propensity to unfold a story that is about now and later at the same time. He’s really good at this. In fact all of reality is the telling and re-telling of The Story. Like the wooden dolls that all look the same but nest inside one another, God’s story is the same but is being told at multiple levels.
“Now”–”then”–”here”–”there”…these ideas are all concepts related to the stage God designed. The Story is in all of them. And it is unfolding at all times. We read of Adam and Eve, we read of us. We read of the nation of Israel, we read of us. These stories were no less true at the time of their happening, and they are no less untrue right now,as you read this.
So the stage is set. A stage like no other. Whole dimensions were designed so that God’s Story could work for eternity, but in time.
He begins to tell, write, and live His own love story, all at the same time. Given the opportunity to write our own love story, I think that you and I would do it very differently. It would involve far less tragedy and suffering. If I wrote it, every character in the story would always suit my preferences in every moment. I think the reason I would write it this way, is that I am far more concerned with myself and my immediate needs than on expressing real love.
He is far more concerned with generating the Fullest Expression of Love Possible. When He focuses on Himself all Creation becomes the Beneficiary.
Therefore His love story would involve sacrifice. And it would involve redemption. It would involve Him laying down His life for His beloved. For His story to include these deep and burning expressions of Ultimate Love, the Story would also need to include the Need for such things.
His Story includes pursuit of the beloved, so it requires that the beloved think for themselves and sometimes not the way He would desire. His Story includes the beloveds choice to return, so we must have options. Options besides Him, that can really be entertained and chosen.
His Story displays His Nature to Heal and Restore. So real wounds and real broken-ness must by necessity be a part of the plot.
And His Story includes a “Happily Ever After”, Bride and Bridegroom celebrate life and fullness together for a really long time.
It is a story with a great ending, but to be a true story of Ultimate, Sacrificial, Redeeming and Restoring Love the need for these things, redemption and restoration, must be real.
He looked at the Stage He had created, and with the Joy set before Him, Act 2 began. He created them, male and female in His Image.
3 Comments
Loving these posts…..enjoying watching the story “unfold”.
I love to write, a lot. I can’t stop. I’m not a good writer, but I do not care, I just keep doing it. I guess my inner being want to learn to write like my Heavenly Father. And is so true..there is not Happy God without His Church. There is not Adam without Eve (was inside both already)…Eve..the Church. I may not write like my Father, but I’m learning to discorver new strategies by His own example. One thing I can’t stop learning from is THE CROSS. I’m I thankfull for all. He did it all. He is The Lover of all. Beautiful. Thanks Bob. I have bigger eyes now!!!
You just reminded me of something I discovered while doing my devotions the week of Freedom Training. … He is so clever! God is so very clever. I love that He is clever.
In the NKJV Genesis 2:4 states: “These are the histories of the heavens and the earth.”
I asked God what He wanted me to know about Him and me from that verse – He told me “The history of the heavens and the the earth is the story of love expressing itself to the beloved in the lives that unfold across time like a map…” And that map leads to the ultimate treasure – Everlasting Life fully immersed in His Holy Presence. Heaven.
I love the story. He is writing a story through each of our lives – a story living to be told.
Blessings.