Kiss The Son

     If we could only see the beauty and heart of God, not only would followers of Jesus be so different, but so would the world we live in. The beauty of God is not just in what He made, though that too is powerful.  The most beautiful example of God we can understand and see is God revealed in Jesus. It is more than just the Bible and it's witness about Jesus, it is Jesus. Jesus as felt and touched by our hearts, our very spirits by His own Spirit. We often ignore the inner part of us that is hungry and exhausted for Him. We push it away with all of the things that are seen. The Spirit is the unseen and eternal one who speaks to us in our unseen and eternal parts. Our bodies are physical and decaying, eventually in death. The spirit and heart of people will not die, that is the part of us that senses and can perceive the presence of God. For us to be in communion with God through this part of our being, we must direct our attention towards The Spirit. This is an inward gaze directed not at ourselves in the sense that people practice mindfulness. If we receive Jesus, we receive His Spirit and this Spirit lives in the deepest, realest part of us. The disconnections to The Spirit come from either a) not receiving Jesus and being born again by The Spirit or b) not paying attention to the movements of God's Spirit in this deep place inside us. 

    We must be intentional to be aware and listening to God. The visible world is alluring, beautiful, and necessary but it is not God. We will not be able to hear God well if we are only focusing on the seen and measurable. God is Spirit and by His nature not seen or measurable. Jesus says the Spirit of God comes and goes like the wind, blowing and pushing those He loves like leaves. The Spirit does what He does and is mysterious (see John 3:8). The Spirit breathes and creates (Genesis 1-3). The words for spirit in both biblical Hebrew and Greek have to do with breath and breathing. Therefore the Spirit is in the same way unseen and moving and creates physical effects due to His movements. We can see leaves pushed by the wind yet the wind is unseen. The only signs of the wind are the feeling of it against our skin and the measurable effects of what it is doing. God's Spirit is similar. We cannot tame or order the wind, we are at it's mercy. God is the unseen center of existence and is perceived by the parts of us that are affected by the unseen "wind". The long term effects of The Spirit are what are called the fruit of the Spirit. It is the tangible character of Jesus displayed in His followers. There are also gifts of The Spirit that encourage us to grow the fruit of this same Spirit. The gifts are the power for the church to transform but the point of them is not in the gifts themselves, but the gifts are for the beautiful glory of the One who gave them. It isn't about power for power's sake, the gifts are about helping people love God and world around them better. The tangible expression of this love is the afore mentioned fruit of The Spirit. 

    Sometimes physical things can help us perceive and focus on The Spirit. The Lord's Supper may be the best example. It is a meal that Jesus asks us to partake of in remembrance of Him. The Spirit demonstrates the beauty and love of God in a tangible way every time we take this supper. The unseen can be sensed by the participation of the church in this meal as we pause and remember who Jesus is and what he did for us. We slow down and focus on God. The seen and unseen are married in acts of worship like this. We do a physical action that has unseen ramifications. Our hearts begin to know and perceive the deep love of God. We hear God if we get quiet and listen. The words we hear give us life in our inner being. Paul prays that the church would understand the love of God experientially and first hand by The Spirit (Ephesians 3:14-19). Our inner being must be flooded with The Spirit's illumination for us to perceive God. He shows us His beauty and goodness. We must make space for The Spirit to hear The Spirit. The Lord's Supper makes this space, yet so do many other things. As long as what we are doing agrees with and orients us to The Spirit it makes this space. The heart becomes a cathedral. We can kiss The Son, He will not be angry.