Some fathers receive ties for presents, or cuff links or maybe a special book. My father, for example, received from me a collection of DVDs on World War II. I guess those dads are normal. I, apparently, am an exception. My son (I will not mention which one, but I will give you two guesses and the first one doesn’t count) gave me a miniature toy figure that looks like Jesus. It is about an inch or so in height, but, the advertisement states, place the figure in water and in ten days “Jesus” will grow up to 600% its size. I plan on beginning the experiment soon and will post the results on my blog. I am a bit troubled wondering if this constitutes rebaptism, but I suppose since this is a toy and not the actual Jesus I am on stable theological ground.
Have you ever approached faith like that? Just add water and Jesus rises up to the occasion. Of course you and I know that it is not nearly so simple. Faith is not a quid pro quo transaction where we act one way and God reciprocates according to a set formula. Do we really want God to be that way? Malleable to our own whims? This would make God a cosmic short-order cook, taking our orders so that we can have it our way.
And yet neither is Jesus unconcerned with where we are or who we are. It’s true, we cannot add water and change Jesus to our expectations or our grandiose ideas, but we can believe that God wants something far bigger in our lives than we can ever expect. Let’s be honest, do we really want a Savior that capitulates to our whims or do we want one who dares to change us? Perhaps a better image would not be a water-soaked figure of Jesus that grows 600% in size, but to imagine ourselves whose lives are ever-growing and expanding because Christ as saturated us.
May our hearts be open and ready to receive the immense generosity of God that has no limits. How is God wanting to grow you? Me? This community of faith we call First Baptist Church?
Peace be with you,
Greg
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