This past Sunday we celebrated All Saints Day at church. This included mention individually of all in the congregation who passed away during the last 12 months. Then we were given the opportunity to honor others deceased who have touched and blessed our lives. The point was made that referring to one as a saint does not suggest complete lack of error in living, but rather that one is a member of that body of earnest players with Christian commitment. Suddenly, the structure pictured and described below came to mind. And for the first time I understood that the Lord’s minions include everyday, ordinary folk who earnestly seek to follow the Way. Thus, in addition to the what might be called the heavenly Trinity, the structure makes provision for the human, intimate fellowship of ordinary believers.
(Material below includes excerpts from previous blogs.)
The goal of the Christian way is not human purity, but divine fellowship. Our task is not to sweep and beautify the house so that there is not a speck of evil dust to be found, but to invite our Lord to dwell with us and fill the house with the laughter of forgiveness and the conversation of grace. (From A Year with Jesus (page 125) by Eugene H. Peterson author of The Message).
This passage by Eugene Peterson brought immediately to mind the structure of the “Little Joke” (see next).. The reality in this situation is not a fantasy world of the immaculately clean (the world, after all, is in a siege of “muddy rainy weather.”) The objective while within this mess is for the presence of the Trinity to fill our lives with forgiveness and grace so that steadiness can prevail in the midst of ambiguity, conflict, and strife—something only possible with the presence and strength of the Trinity—of Blessed Assurance embodied.
The Abiding “Little Joke”
Once many years ago (in 1980) I had a dear friend who gave me the following drawing on a small scratchpad piece of paper just before we left in his car on an errand one dark and rainy afternoon. It is not the original drawing, which I lost, but a reproduction to the best of my memory and like the original is drawn with a broad tipped pen in black ink. It is a very accurate reproduction for I immediately took it seriously though he said it was a “little joke.” Very early on I took the drawing to have spiritual significance and assumed it was the gift of a divine messenger. The writing beneath states (and these are the exact words) “A structure like this will please the dogs in muddy rainy weather.” I take this to mean a holy structure (the thrice divided triangle) with a cantilever extension indicating worship of the Lord and also being and outward extension indicating compassionate involvement in the world—a structure—which will please the dogs in muddy rainy weather—in other words, through our time on earth which is a period of “muddy rainy weather.” The “dogs” I take to be the Lord and all his minions. I am led to share this with you tonight praying that all might be inspired to live sturdy, structured, and holy lives.
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