When God shows up

When God shows up, things change. I know that everyone knows that intellectually. But I’m not sure how much we really grasp the idea. Do we think that this is still true and applicable today?

The very essence of Christianity is that everything changes. That’s what happens when God becomes manifest and encounters creation. Why would we expect anything less?

The first instance of God showing up is in Creation. The very act of creation changed everything.

God shows up to many people in the stories of Scripture too — Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. God shows up in Egypt when the Egyptians would not release the Israelites.

God shows up in the New Testament to. God showed up in Jesus — at his birth, his resurrection, and his ascension. God showed up at Pentecost. God showed up at Paul’s conversion.

In each instance of God showing up, everything changes. In each instance humanity thought that everything was linear and that the only way to get from point A to point B was by a straight line. Then God showed up and showed that there were other ways to go and that often time, God wasn’t interested in going to our point B. To stretch the analogy — When God shows up, we see that we aren’t dealing with a nice straight line, but rather a line, with another line going up and down, and a third line coming out at us. It’s 3D.

I think part of the reason for everything changing when God shows up is that things that are alive change and adapt as new circumstances come into play. And when God shows up, things change. Faith is a living thing and so it changes and adapts.

Do we believe that God continues to show up today? Open your eyes and look around.

Originally published at https://pastormatthewbest.com on May 12, 2020.