Constellations and Other Body Movements
Many clear nights I can see the Southern Cross out my window as I lay in my bed. My iPhone didn't capture it well enough to post here, so I borrowed a picture of the Southern Cross from the internet. This one is courtesy of Astro Photography of Australia.
It's the four stars with the pinkish one at the top. The Southern Cross is a new constellation to me not visible from North America. In Minnesota we have constellations such as the Big and Little Dippers, with Polaris the North Star being the set-point or "pole star" in the sky. The southern pole star is called Sigma Octantis, a star too dim for navigation, so the nearby Southern Cross is used in its place. Like in the northern hemisphere where the stars in the sky appear to revolve around Polaris, the southern hemisphere stars appear to revolve around the Southern Cross.
Excuse me for a minute while I go put on some flip flops. A wasp wants to be my friend. I snipped it off my mouse and now I can't see where it landed. I don't want to accidentally step on it when I get up to get a drink or something later.
I'm back.
Earlier, the wasp was resting on my guitar -- mine for the summer, I should clarify. The church owns the guitar. I almost put my hand on the wasp earlier this morning. After I took its picture, it bumbled slowly off the guitar. I think it may be at the end of its lifespan.
See it? Silhouetted up top?
Between the Southern Cross and the wasp on the guitar, I find myself in a pondering state of mind. I've been thinking about 1 Corinthians 15, a passage I often find myself in. It's the resurrection chapter, where Paul talks about the resurrection being the center, the pole star, around which the gospel message spins. My mind is spinning over it. So many applications to me personally: the Southern Cross; my mission assignment this summer; mechanical challenges with the cars that I have no husband to call on. A lot of Southern Cross connections could be made with this. I started to think about 1 Corinthnians 15 and got out my Bible, but was drawn to something unexpected in that chapter. Something I needed. Something different than where I thought I was going to go. It is in verse 41 of 1 Cor 15:
To Paul, when applied to individual Jesus-followers, the resurrection of Jesus is a similar thing. People are made of dust. But people also are spiritual beings. One is an Adam trait; one is a Jesus trait. As children of dust we have physical bodies, but as children of heaven, we also have spiritual bodies. The physical body dies and returns to dust. The spiritual body cannot die. We were not designed to live forever in a body capable of dying. We were designed to live in a spiritual body over which death has no power. Until Jesus died and rose again, we had no way to turn our dust bodies into the completed spiritual bodies God had planned for us from the start. The first to make the conversion was Jesus Christ. With Jesus' resurrection, "death has been swallowed up in victory." Because Jesus rose from the dead, we too will rise. That is the message of the gospel Paul spent his later life spreading. It is the gospel message I am spending my later life spreading.
In some ways, that is the easy part. It is the spiritual side of our work on earth. The hard part is that we do our work as dust bodies. We get discouraged sometimes at our dust body's limitations, physically, emotionally, relationally. That's where the Cross comes in. The key is to stay focused on Jesus, and keep moving forward.
I find that concept in the final verse in 1 Cor 15, which says:
It's a school of bullhead minnows they filmed Sunday afternoon when her family went to the source of the Mississippi River located about 30 miles from their home. Do you see how the whole group moves together? They move together, yet the southern hemisphere minnows cannot see their northern hemisphere siblings. Each minnow has to adjust its swim pattern to match what its nearest neighbor is doing. As each adjusts to those closest at hand, the whole school moves. To me it mirrors what the Bible says about the movement of the church on earth. We move side-by-side as siblings without full knowledge of our impact in this life, yet believing that the kingdom of God will advance whether we perceive its direction or not (Luke 17:21).
The illustration, of course, isn't perfect. We have God's Spirit indwelling us individually and corporately so that the movement of the body of Christ is not as random as it is with schools of fishes. The dynamic, however, is still the same. We fix our eyes on Jesus, his cross and his resurrection becoming the pole star life, individually and corporately. We move in tandem with those around us, ever changing, and ever being shaped, more into the image of Jesus, through our association together under the Holy Spirit's direction. It's a beautiful thing. It is also subject to misunderstandings when one side of the school cannot see what the other side is doing.
First Corinthians 15 has been an encouragement to me as I have dealt with the challenges of the past week, including flat tires, dead car batteries, and heavy conversations...not to mention wasps on my guitar. I should kill the wasp, but I can't bring myself to do it. It taught me too many lessons this morning just by being there, things I haven't time to delve into right now, but which speak to the attitude Jesus is working to cultivate in me as I lean into the lessons rather than resist. Hopefully, the wasp will fly back outside. With all the doors open and no screens, surely it will eventually.
I'm about to fly too...off to buy a Filipino broom at the XO Market I showed you a couple weeks ago. Best brooms ever! I am hoping to fit one into my suitcase.
Have a great day!
Amy
It's the four stars with the pinkish one at the top. The Southern Cross is a new constellation to me not visible from North America. In Minnesota we have constellations such as the Big and Little Dippers, with Polaris the North Star being the set-point or "pole star" in the sky. The southern pole star is called Sigma Octantis, a star too dim for navigation, so the nearby Southern Cross is used in its place. Like in the northern hemisphere where the stars in the sky appear to revolve around Polaris, the southern hemisphere stars appear to revolve around the Southern Cross.
Excuse me for a minute while I go put on some flip flops. A wasp wants to be my friend. I snipped it off my mouse and now I can't see where it landed. I don't want to accidentally step on it when I get up to get a drink or something later.
I'm back.
Earlier, the wasp was resting on my guitar -- mine for the summer, I should clarify. The church owns the guitar. I almost put my hand on the wasp earlier this morning. After I took its picture, it bumbled slowly off the guitar. I think it may be at the end of its lifespan.
See it? Silhouetted up top?
Between the Southern Cross and the wasp on the guitar, I find myself in a pondering state of mind. I've been thinking about 1 Corinthians 15, a passage I often find myself in. It's the resurrection chapter, where Paul talks about the resurrection being the center, the pole star, around which the gospel message spins. My mind is spinning over it. So many applications to me personally: the Southern Cross; my mission assignment this summer; mechanical challenges with the cars that I have no husband to call on. A lot of Southern Cross connections could be made with this. I started to think about 1 Corinthnians 15 and got out my Bible, but was drawn to something unexpected in that chapter. Something I needed. Something different than where I thought I was going to go. It is in verse 41 of 1 Cor 15:
"There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; indeed, star differs from star in glory" (NRSV).Constellations are single units as seen from earth, yet each star or sun or moon is its own thing, each with its own "glory".
To Paul, when applied to individual Jesus-followers, the resurrection of Jesus is a similar thing. People are made of dust. But people also are spiritual beings. One is an Adam trait; one is a Jesus trait. As children of dust we have physical bodies, but as children of heaven, we also have spiritual bodies. The physical body dies and returns to dust. The spiritual body cannot die. We were not designed to live forever in a body capable of dying. We were designed to live in a spiritual body over which death has no power. Until Jesus died and rose again, we had no way to turn our dust bodies into the completed spiritual bodies God had planned for us from the start. The first to make the conversion was Jesus Christ. With Jesus' resurrection, "death has been swallowed up in victory." Because Jesus rose from the dead, we too will rise. That is the message of the gospel Paul spent his later life spreading. It is the gospel message I am spending my later life spreading.
In some ways, that is the easy part. It is the spiritual side of our work on earth. The hard part is that we do our work as dust bodies. We get discouraged sometimes at our dust body's limitations, physically, emotionally, relationally. That's where the Cross comes in. The key is to stay focused on Jesus, and keep moving forward.
I find that concept in the final verse in 1 Cor 15, which says:
"Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain" (vs 58).How do we keep from becoming discouraged? How do we do the work of the Lord, moving in concert together, when all of us individually are encased in our own bodies of dust? It helps me to think of the church in the shape of a constellation rather than a vertical, biped body. As a constellation, Jesus is the pole star around which his body, us, move according to his direction. It put me in mind of this video my daughter sent me from northern Minnesota last week.
It's a school of bullhead minnows they filmed Sunday afternoon when her family went to the source of the Mississippi River located about 30 miles from their home. Do you see how the whole group moves together? They move together, yet the southern hemisphere minnows cannot see their northern hemisphere siblings. Each minnow has to adjust its swim pattern to match what its nearest neighbor is doing. As each adjusts to those closest at hand, the whole school moves. To me it mirrors what the Bible says about the movement of the church on earth. We move side-by-side as siblings without full knowledge of our impact in this life, yet believing that the kingdom of God will advance whether we perceive its direction or not (Luke 17:21).
The illustration, of course, isn't perfect. We have God's Spirit indwelling us individually and corporately so that the movement of the body of Christ is not as random as it is with schools of fishes. The dynamic, however, is still the same. We fix our eyes on Jesus, his cross and his resurrection becoming the pole star life, individually and corporately. We move in tandem with those around us, ever changing, and ever being shaped, more into the image of Jesus, through our association together under the Holy Spirit's direction. It's a beautiful thing. It is also subject to misunderstandings when one side of the school cannot see what the other side is doing.
First Corinthians 15 has been an encouragement to me as I have dealt with the challenges of the past week, including flat tires, dead car batteries, and heavy conversations...not to mention wasps on my guitar. I should kill the wasp, but I can't bring myself to do it. It taught me too many lessons this morning just by being there, things I haven't time to delve into right now, but which speak to the attitude Jesus is working to cultivate in me as I lean into the lessons rather than resist. Hopefully, the wasp will fly back outside. With all the doors open and no screens, surely it will eventually.
I'm about to fly too...off to buy a Filipino broom at the XO Market I showed you a couple weeks ago. Best brooms ever! I am hoping to fit one into my suitcase.
Have a great day!
Amy
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