With Our Whole Being

Happy Easter!  This Tuesday of Easter Week I continue my journey through Scott Hahn’s book, Lenten Reflections from A Father Who Keeps His Promises.

On Easter Sunday, I wrote about the Heavenly Worship described in Revelation Chapter 4.  Today, Scott Hahn again discusses this Heavenly Worship and couples it with the worship of the Lamb described in Chapter 5.  Scott reflects on the union of divinity and humanity in Christ, and then reflects on the unity of our worship of creator (Chapter 4) and redeemer (Chapter 5):  “This is a unified liturgy with two distinct parts:  One celebrates God for making us, while the other Celebrates Christ for saving us.”

This dual nature of worship reminds me of God’s love:  ours is not a Creator who makes us and then sets us adrift!  He always provides!

Until recently we lived with a seasonal stream that was often very dry, but when it rained would be swollen with runoff.  My boys and I invented a game that we would play when the stream was full.  We would create little boats out of wood scraps from my workbench (a word I use loosely here for fear it implies any woodworking skill on my part).

Once we crafted these little boats, we would march off to a point upstream from our house and set our wood adrift in the swift current.  But that wasn’t the end of the game.  We would follow the boats, slogging through mud and undergrowth, keenly observing the progress of our imaginary crew, even ad-libbing conversations and helm orders on the decks of our boats.

At times progress would stop when the wood hit a shallow “shoal” or snagged on a low branch.  At those points we—their creators—would step in to rescue our crews from their hazards.

I think that God is like this.  He didn’t just create us to set adrift without a second thought.  He watches us constantly with keen interest and is always available to help when we cry out from our hazards.

With such a wonderful loving Creator—who loved us so much He gave His only Son “so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life”—how can I do anything less than love Him completely?

And yet I still need to be reminded. Often.  
The first of the Greatest Commandments is to “love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”  Matt. 22:37.