Monday 11 December 2023

One

One

 

One of us
One with us
One to win us
One to give us


One more chance
At an infinite number
Of second chances,
One
To
Make
Free
Out of being
For
Us


Not aloof
No longer misconstrued as distant
Not far off
But so close
It is on your lips
And in your heart


You don't stand at a distance, saying,
How does it feel to bleed?
No.
God bleeds too,
And he looked on what he had done
And he said
that it was good.


Reflection: One of us


The singer Joan Osbourne, asked back in the 90's, what if God was one of us? This poem is a little exploration of that theme. What did it mean for him to become one of us. Also to become one with us, that is, as we are united with him, as Paul describes in Romans. My conclusion, in either case, one with or one of us, he is not apart. Our pain is his pain. Our joy is his joy, as his joy is ours, as his pain is our pain. IN the same way, when Paul talks of the unity of the body (the church) he says if one part of the body suffers the whole body suffers with it.

It is so easy to feel abandoned by God when we allow our pain to become isolating and we become insular as a result. And then the questions come. Why does God allow me to suffer?

I don't know the answer ultimately but I know that he does not stand apart. He is with us. He is Immanuel. God with us. One with us. One of us. And though sorrow endures for the night, joy comes in the glorious morning. He makes a way so that on that day, we will know, wiht him, no more tears. No more sorrow. No more sickness. No more death, and he will dwell with us, and we with him, and he himself will be our light.


~Scriptures~

If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 
~1 Cor 12:26-27~


I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
~Phil 3:10 ~

 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.
~Romans 6:5~


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