CREATOR, OR REDEEMER?

We think of God as being primarily the Creator. And yet, long before creation, the dream of neighborhood was in His heart. And so He molded the earth in the palm of His hand. And he set it spinning in space, not just to see if He could, but rather to create a theater in which fellowship could take place between His children.

We have no way of knowing whether He might have set up other theaters, but at least we know about this one.

And so, creation is really secondary to redemption. For, from the beginning, God determined to mix us up, enmesh us in each other's lives. Why?...in order to make us fight and snarl and snap at each other? No, that is the animal level. He made us to be higher than that. God had planned from the beginning of time for mankind to be redeemed from his animal‑like characteristics. And to learn what it means to live together in peace.

There is a story about a man in New York city who said he would bring that wicked city to her knees, and he would teach the lion and the lamb to lay down together in peace. And he did it! And in one of the city stores, he got people to come and see it being done. Week after week people came, and there in a window cage, the lion and the lambs were indeed lying down together.

Finally, one person asked him how he had accomplished this amazing miracle...a lion and lambs, lying down together? "What does it take to accomplish this?" he was asked. "Well", the man sighed, "it takes an almost inexhaustible supply of lambs!"

We think about the starving millions, and the war‑torn multitudes around the world, and we see that there have been an almost inexhaustible supply of lambs, led to the slaughter. Is there no answer here?

A Rabbi once said, "I can give you the essence of the entire Old Testament in one verse." "What is it?" he was asked. "Job 1:21...The Lord has given, and the Lord has taken away...blessed be the name of the Lord." "The answer," he said, "is obedience!"

A Christian minister said, "Well I can match you. The New Testament can be contained in one verse, namely this: Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane saying, 'Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me....but if not, then Thy will be done.' Submission is the key," the minister replied.

Sometimes I do not want to obey. But finally, I must submit. The key to life is submission. I cannot avoid it. I must give in to it. I may not like it, but I am my brother's keeper. I am entangled in this human relationship. I can fight it and be utterly miserable, or I can submit to it, and find the glory of it. God marvels in His creation, but His dream was for a redeeming fellowship, where indeed lions and lambs could live in peace.