Genesis 1:27-31
So God created human beings in his own image.
In the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them. T
hen God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”
Then God said, "Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food. And I have given every green plant as food for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and the small animals that scurry along the ground—everything that has life.” And that is what happened.
Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!
Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.
Mark 9:12
And He said to them, "Elijah does first come and restore all things. And yet how is it written of the Son of Man that He will suffer many things and be treated with contempt?
Revelation 22:1-3
Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations. No longer will there be a curse upon anything. For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him.
Kevin Deane revisited an old idea last week at church. The larger story of God's work begins when heaven and earth were the same place, a garden, and ends with that being restored. In between can be painful. How do I respond? Mourn and wait for 'freedom'? Is that the good news? Jesus healed people over and over during his life, restoring crippled legs to walking, blind eyes to seeing, etc. It's true that sometimes Jesus wept at the world he saw around him, yet he went about his Father's business. What was this business of his Father? Could it be the same business God invited us to right at the beginning: To govern the world? Yet, as Jesus taught his disciples, if I want to govern, I shouldn't lord it over others, I lead by serving.
I love that in Genesis, God looks at man being alone, and thinks, this isn't good, he needs a woman. It's the only problem that precludes the entrance of sin. So God changes what he sees. I'm constantly looking at things and imagining change. I want to rotate my garage 90 degrees and put a rooftop patio on it for example. The cost of implementing change is deceptively large. I still have a lot of other incomplete changes to finish. For all change I must consider, is it worth it? Don't let me be a coward though. Don't ever let me stop pushing through pain. No, instead the only question I must allow is:
Which changes are worth their cost?
I'm done school. I'm done that change.
My sister asked how I would celebrate. I visited friends without regard for the next day's tasks. I rested for a weekend. I reread a favourite novel. I took walks with my wife in the sunshine. I celebrated Easter with friends and family. I ate cheesecake and catered salmon for Sherry's work potluck. I wrote political parties emails. I avoided organizing my income taxes today to think and write this. I will take a day tomorrow to go learn how to shade and finish my final project desk & printer stand that Jason is buying from me.
To be done school feels underwhelming. The change isn't done. I'm receiving a carpentry ticket that says I'm competent at a grand list of skills. If only it were true. So I must keep working to make it true. I'd love to begin learning how to do finishing work, but I still have a great many changes that I've begun on my house that require a lot more work to complete, and a lot more money to pay for. I need a part time job, but how do you come by one of those? Friends it seems is the answer, bent on changes of their own. So I will join Jason for four months roofing to check off one of my purported skills as real. I'll only be working four days a week gaining an extra day to do work at home.
Oh Canada, how I would change how you are governed. I imagine having two sectors of federal government. One sector would have no party affiliations. Representatives would be elected and their job would be to present changes to their region's citizens. These are the pros, the cons, the costs. Then they would listen to those informed citizens' feedback, and either vote accordingly or bring any necessary or beneficial revisions back to the other sector of government. This other sector of government would be party based, however the parties would be voted on by total population, not region. The parties would clearly represent value priorities and voters would choose these parties to match their own. The parties would then collaborate to create ideas for change without the crippling distraction of power, because parties wouldn't be deciding anything, the citizens would.
Maybe some day we will open our eyes and demand valuable effective democracy in place of the colonial elitist disgrace we've inherited.
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