Game Over (from before the beginning)

 

Monday, May 23, 2022

The Lord is king! He is robed in majesty.  Indeed, the Lord is robed in majesty and armed with strength.  The world stands firm and cannot be shaken.  Your throne, O Lord, has stood from time immemorial.  You yourself are from the everlasting past.  The floods have risen up, O Lord.  The floods have roared like thunder; the floods have lifted their pounding waves.  But mightier than the violent raging of the seas, mightier than the breakers on the shore—the Lord above is mightier than these!  Your royal laws cannot be changed.  Your reign, O Lord, is holy forever and ever.  Psalm 93:1-5

And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.”  And he also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End.  To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life.  All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.  Revelation 21:5-7

My brother, Thom, is a month shy of being four years older than I am.  That made a huge difference when we were kids.  With his size and maturity, every athletic contest was over before it began.  Because of my stubborn nature, it never kept me from trying to beat the odds.  In all the years of human existence it has been thus…we resist the irresistable, and fight against the unconquerable!

Ultimately there were some changes with my brother.  I may have won a time or two.  He’s still the better athlete, but with what’s left of two sets of knees (his and mine), neither of us has the inclination to return to the contests.  Old men have their memories, and that’s enough of a playground.

I see a parallel on a grander scale in the wrestling match featuring God and humans.  It’s also way over from before the beginning.  The Psalmist rehearses the power of the thundering seas, which was a foreshadow of mysterious dark, menacing forces in the ancient mind.  Then he turns the page to the heavens, declaring the mightier power of the Creator.  The seas may be violently raging, but it is still the lesser, contained in the greater, the one, true eternal God.

This is the “Alpha” of Revelation’s vision of “Omega”.  God began the beginning for humanity and the globe of dust we inhabit.  He is also the end point of God’s heart-plan for us; He is our omega, our ending, or, frankly, the whole point of our existence!  He is, as the Revelator’s pen declares, the one sitting on the throne.  And THAT throne, which is above every other throne, is what decides the outcome of whatever is in its view.  There is nothing which escapes its power.

Back to the playground metaphor with my brother playing the lead part.  There came a time when we were more evenly-matched, and the scores of the games became closer.  But that’s where the analogy ends; humans will never get closer to the power, majesty, and splendor of He who sits on Heaven’s throne…not with physical power, nor because we wish or will it to be so.  None of us can overwhelm, outsmart or out-maneuver the Almighty.  We are, as the raging, violent seas, still the lesser, contained in the Greater.

For You Today

If you struggle sometimes with that final surrender of your destiny, understand that is the chink in our human nature…to hold out some vestige of hope that, one day our way, our choices, or our terms may be in charge, not God’s rule over our existence.  But that is the dream of a fool. 

Knowing that God has good plans for us, and His might will bring them about for those who acknowledge His Kingdom, is the “win” of all wins.  Bow before the throne, acknowledging Jesus, the Lord of Lords, and King of Kings.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road with Jesus; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title image: Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©