Show not tell

As an author, I am constantly encouraged in my writing to ‘show not tell’.  This means that it is not enough to say ‘The sunset was beautiful.’ Far better to write, ‘the sun sank in a magnificent blaze of red, orange, and pink that stretched across the sky, before disappearing below the western horizon, ushering in the night.’

God is the master craftsman of ‘show not tell’. In the book of Genesis, God tells us about creation; what he created, but when we gaze upon the creation, seeing what God has shown us, it makes us exclaim like David,

When I consider your heavens,
   the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,    which you have set in place,

 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
    human beings that you care for them? Psalm 8: 3- 4

 Creation, despite man’s terrible plundering, abusing and despoiling of this ‘green and blue planet’,  it is still superb, glorious, stunning. The night sky unspoiled by light pollution has to be the light show to surpass all light shows.  There are times when I am literally speechless at the stunning beauty of majestic mountain ranges or overwhelmed by the chilly splendour of the polar regions in all their breath-taking snowiness or the loveliness of solitary marshland, winding rivers and estuaries.

Surely God shows us his glorious creativity in the sheer variety of birds, fish, reptiles and mammals that inhabit planet Earth. One of the creatures that most amuses me most is an extravagant black and white bug that hovers in the heat of South Africa, all quivering frills and tassels. It never fails to make me laugh. However it is fish that amaze me in their incredible diversity and when we think that most of them were unknown, concealed in the depths of the ocean until the technological advances of 20^th century brought them to our television screens. What an extravagant, magnificent Creator God we have!

However the greatness of Creation is nothing compared to how God has shown his love for us. 

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5: 8. 

God did not wait for us to get our lives sorted or even turn to him. He initiated the great sacrifice of his life for ours whilst we were still sinners.

God so desired to restore man’s broken relationship with him that he was prepared to go to any lengths necessary.  It was love, incredible love that took Jesus to the cross and love that kept him on the cross.

How did this amazing gift come to us? By grace – the greatest demonstration of God’s love towards sinful man.  Simon Ponsonby writes: ‘Grace – abundant grace – grace is a gift. Grace is not grace if you earned it; a gift is not a gift if you bought it. Grace is not a reward, or a payment, or a due. It is outrageous, undeserved, unmerited, divine favour’.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.  Ephesians 2: 8- 9

We have nothing to bring to God, there is no sacrifice we can offer, no treasure that didn’t first come from him, all he asks of us is our love – that rather poor trickle of affection that draws us into the richest of relationship. In his arms we truly learn how valued, loved, appreciated, adored and precious we are to him.

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!  1 John 3: 1.

God is showing us the greatest treasure of all – his love. He doesn’t tell us how much he loves us, he shows us through Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross, taking our punishment, forgiving our sins and as we surrender our lives to him, he takes us on the greatest adventure of all -  the discovery of our true identity as children of God and the amazing plan and purpose he has for our lives.

The benefit of hindsight of lockdown

I have a confession to make. Looking back, I really enjoyed the first few weeks of lockdown, with a few exceptions. For the first time in ages we had to slow down, we had to re-evaluate our lives and all the things we rush around for had to fall away, and we focused on just the things that really matter to us; keeping in touch with family and friends, taking a daily walk, enjoying the countryside.  I loved the spring weather, beautiful flowers and green leaves budding, the quietness and hearing the birdsong, but most of all having more time to spend with Jesus every day. 

I’m retired so I don’t have the hassle of going to work, but life can nevertheless be pretty busy and now I had space and time.  Others of you may have been seriously challenged with having to work from home and home school your children, or keep bored teenagers in rein. Some of you may have been frightened by the virus or fallen ill but every single one of us has had our life fundamentally shifted.

Some may not have enjoyed the whole lockdown, but I know many have thanked God for it and the ability it has given us to reassess our life and priorities.

This last week I fell back into my old ways, trying to fill every waking moment with something. God had to really speak to me and ask ‘do I really want this or do I want to go back to a more measured life?’ My new normal, my new reset means I am not going to fill every single hour with something but I’m going to slow down, but most of all focus on Jesus, have quality time with him. I need the space to have time to do things well, to think and to spend with people, not squeeze them into my other activities.

So I encourage you, what’s your new normal, what’s your reset. Is it to rush off to the beaches with everyone else, to be first in the queue at the restaurants, pubs and clubs? Or is it to say that this lockdown has had a fundamental effect on my life and one I want to take into my new normal, to live at a more measured, more meaningful, more fruitful pace.

It reminds me of the passage I keep coming back to in Joshua 3: 2 - 4.  After three days the officers went throughout the camp, ³ giving orders to the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the Levitical priests carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. ⁴ Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before. 

The Israelites had to follow the ark because they had never been that way before. The ark represents for us the presence of God through his Holy Spirit.  If we’re going to follow him effectively, then we must take time to be with him and find out where he is going and what he is doing. None of us have been this way before.

This lockdown has given me the time to re-evaluate my life and it has been liberating. Your life will be different but I hope you too have been able to reassess your priorities and the things that really matter to you. I trust your relationship with God is closer, more trusting and more loving; that you have an increasing revelation of God’s love for you and what he is calling you to.

God has an amazing plan for his people, he is taking us to places we have never been before. The most important thing is that we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and that we follow the Holy Spirit.