God In The Dark


I have been going through a very intense trial the last couple of weeks. I am not going to reveal what it is, take my word for it. I try to avoid settling scores online. The trial continues...it ain't over yet.  

Speaking of trial, my favorite book of all time is C.S. Lewis's "God In The Dock." That is just the British way of saying, "God On Trial." In the collection of essays, C.S. Lewis does a masterful job in articulating a Christian perspective on various topics. He has one on the terrors of reciprocity in Christmas gift-giving. On a weightier topic, he discusses War (much of his writing and speaking coincided with years of war). I wonder if England would have prevailed against Nazi Germany without the witness of Lewis.

One of the  questions all of us have is where is God when things go into the crapper? Well, as I ran today, I thought about the myriad of sins that were inflicted upon Jesus. Envied, hated, laughed at, forgotten and forsaken, ridiculed, abused, misunderstood. Pretty much that and the rest. Where is Christ? Well, He was in  the crapper. A recipient of the waste and wickedness of humanity. We don't think God experienced and experiences suffering. Maybe it is us that has no idea.

It was blasphemous to the devout that God would take on our humanity. In trying to be God, we become devils. In God becoming man, we have the opportunity to become participants as creatures in the community of Deity. God is in the Dark with us, not as a symbolic presence, but very much real. I take it as instructive that Jesus post-resurrection still had wounds. Not because He had to, for He could have healed them. He chose to retain the scars as a reminder that He not only suffered for us 2,000 years ago, He suffers for us today.    

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