A Hole in One

"Starting from scratch, he made the entire human race and made the earth hospitable, with plenty of time and space for living so we could seek after God, and not just grope around in the dark, but actually find him. He doesn't play hide and seek with us. He's not remote; he's near." (Acts 17:26-27, The Message)

There's something written into the human soul, a need, a desire, more specifically a yearning for something beyond oneself. It's been in every person. It's in us. Our quest for the meaning of life comes from this prompting. It has made the human family speculate, discuss, seek the otherness that is connected ever-so-loosely to this one, in order to bring it closer to understanding, to this life.

It's that empty part of our soul that humans have always worked at filling with meaning. It's what's been called in evangelical circles the "God-shaped hole." And it means that God has been speaking to the human family from its creation, not only through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob's family (Israel), but also through Abraham's other children, Isaac's other children and the whole human family around the world. I'm not so naive to think that in only one people and in only one fashion God has tried to make himself known. That's not the God we know, who cares about all humanity, desires all of us to come to faith in him.

Now while it's true that we attempt to fill this hole with the wrong things, (that's not our purpose this week) it's also true that we've tried filling it with our (even at times misguided) quest for God.

So the whole human family has attempted in some ways to define God. Now that has created many problems such as nations fighting over their own "superior" idea of God; some creating multiple gods; and some who have missed completely the very loving nature of God (preferring a god who is spiteful, mean-spirited, vengeful, etc. and who should be feared instead of worshiped, paid back instead of honored, served (unwillingly) instead of followed.)

It makes sense then that what we see is the Biblical account is a story of one people's quest for the true God and were blessed because they got it right (at least many did). It's why Jesus and his Gospel appeals not only to Jews but to Gentiles then and through these last 2 millenia. Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of the God-revelation. There's no speculation anymore. No doubts about who God is, what God is like.

It's like all human history and religion pointed toward the land of Canaan during the early first Century, toward a God-human baby born in Bethlehem to poor parents, who grew up to ride into Jerusalem on a donkey's colt while the people along the road cried out "Hosanna." It was he, Jesus the Messiah, who came to draw all people to himself; to the one, true God.

Paul told the people of Athens they were so close, they even had a shrine to the right God, they just didn't know him. "I was fascinated with all the shrines I came across. And then I found one inscribed, TO THE GOD NOBODY KNOWS. I'm here to introduce you to this God so you can worship intelligently, knowing who you're dealing with." (Acts 11:22-23, The Message)

It's in him that the hole is completely and perfectly filled. No other god can, no other religion even comes close.

Peace ><>

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