TOGETHER FOREVER
Philippians 2: 1-2 Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, 2 make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.
Were you around during the Jesus Movement in the 1970’s?
I remember it being so exciting! To be a Christian was to be a New Creature— and I felt like a new creature. My eyes were opened to things my parents never knew.
My parents, children of the Depression, had been devastated by their families’ practice of Christian Science. There was a lot of painful baggage they carried because of it. I’m sure they thought I had lost my mind when I came home to “witness” to them about how they were sinners and needed saving. In Christian Science there was no such concept as “a sinner”. You either recited “The Truth” and got well, or you were sick and they shamed you for not believing correctly. Simple. It was all on you.
I can see now why my revelations were met with astonishment (aside from my youth and brash attitude, of course).
Nonetheless, I persisted in going to church, making Christian friends, getting baptized. God was with me. There was hardly anything as exciting as driving down the street and seeing a bumper sticker that said “Honk if you love Jesus!” We would all honk back and forth, give each other the “One Way” sign by pointing upward, then grin all the way to our next stop. I belonged. I belonged to the Body of Christ! It was exhilarating!
Fortunately, God put me in a church with a wonderful pastor who was as excited about belonging to Jesus as I was. His wife was a motherly person who embraced all of us “hippie types” and ministered common sense and lots of love. Eventually Jesus showed me how I could actually love my parents, regardless of what they believed. They were even gracious enough to come to my baptism.
Thus began the looooong road to coming to see that loving Jesus was not about Me, but about all of His children. It was communal/corporate, not individualistic. Getting in to the Kingdom of God was an individual leap, but living there was about everybody, and how God meant for me to fit. Being self-referential like most of us, it is a concept that I still don’t have a consistent handle on. It becomes about Me again with the flick of an eyelash. But God is faithful.
I need pictures in order to plant concepts firmly in my mind and heart. It’s just the way I think. When someone is trying to explain something to me, I often have to ask them to draw it for me so I can “see” what they are saying. For this concept of oneness in Christ I looked for other things in God’s world might give us a “picture” of what He is trying to convey.
Did you know that certain kinds of trees are connected underground by their root system? I found an article on the Quaking Aspen forest. Their root system is so expansive that it serves as a kind of underground “nervous system”. It turns out that they are interdependent on each other. They actually communicate with the whole forest when something happens. A localized invasion of a parasite can actually cause other parts of the forest to prepare themselves to fight it off. Scientists say that trees in this kind of system live longer than trees that live in isolation. They form symbiotic partnerships with other species, such as fungi, to help feed each other. Some of these arboreal communities prefer reproduction by shoots from the root system rather than by seeds—perhaps because it is more reliable? How remarkable!
I am used to thinking about people in relationships, and even animals, but here are the PLANTS living in community! God’s creation never ceases to reduce me to praise.
Jesus uses a metaphor from nature for community in John 15:5:
“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”
And what is it that binds us all together in love? The Spirit! We can’t live without Him!
He is like the sap running through the vine, a thread running through a piece of embroidery, a never-ending river of living water flowing from Him, in and out of each of us, filling us with His love, encouraging us, empowering us to do His work in the world.
Jesus gives us life, and taking our place in His Body makes us healthy, vibrant and fruitful.
Ephesians 4:1-6 Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, 3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.
1 Corinthians 12:26-27
26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
27 Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.
As we saw in the aspen forest, each member supports, feeds, and protects the others.
Imagine for a minute that the presence of the Holy Spirit in each Christian heart is connected by a holy thread, or root, to the Holy Spirit in every other Christian heart in all the world. In fact, in all of history. What a network that would represent—not visible on the outside but binding us together in a weaving of such mastery that we are connected at the deepest place in our hearts— the Holy of Holies where God dwells. We are fed and protected by this wonderful weaving, we communicate through it, we show the glory of God by its power. It is a force of such magnitude that nothing can destroy it. We hold the very power that binds the universe together in these earthen vessels.
The Universal Body is one divine thread woven through Christ, creating an Eternal Tapestry of Love.
Can you imagine what it must look like??
Hallelujah!
Blessings and Peace, Church. We are so much more than we think we are-- because of Him.
In case you want to read more about the trees:
Do tree roots connect?
This is an interesting video interviewing Greg Laurie about The Jesus Revolution. It was good history, if you are interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJEbwE4IjEY
What a beautiful testimony, Cindy...God bless you. And the trees that have those roots connected, not getting in each other’s way or pushing others to the side but allowing us to care for each other = AMAZING , JUST LIKE GOD!
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