Like all good stories, or all stories for that matter, what we know to exist had a beginning. There was a point when rocks did not exist and then lo and behold, rocks came into being. Forget the debating about evolution versus creationism, which one is more epic? Which one is so obnoxiously outrageous that it has to be true? One of the big problems with growing up is we think we become better just by the very nature of having existed longer. This is simply not true, apart from the grace of God man is more like milk than wine as it ages. The painful reality is that we spoil and go sour; we don’t get more potent and priceless under the right conditions. This is why Jesus said that unless we become like a little child we will not enter Kingdom-life. Kids enjoy life. Adults walk around like they can count to infinity. Kids aren’t humble, they’re free.
As we get older we think that we are becoming more “logical”, but it isn’t true. The word “logic” comes from the Greek word “logos”, which John the Beloved Revelator used at the beginning of his gospel account to describe the Lord Jesus Christ to the philosophers of His time. Being “logical” means being more lined up with the logos and Jesus, the Word made flesh valued child-likeness. Imagination loses out when we come up against tribulation. Instead of turning our children into creative imaginators, we have given them “reality checks” and shut them down, making them into frustrated imitations of our boring selves. Generations don’t build on each other because they put limits on the following generation to their own experience, which was also limited.
Taking the mind of a child salvation is amazing. There is a really big, strong Guy who made everything. He and His two best Friends thought through all the details – how bark would smell, why oranges always squirt you when you bite them, how a caterpillar walks, how tickles work and why sneezes sometimes hurt and sometimes make your nose buzz. So this Guy is the greatest Guy ever, He even made people so that He could hang out with them and show them wacky things. But the first two people that He made didn’t listen to His warnings about one tree that had dangerous fruit, and they ate the poisonous fruit. Then for a long time the Great Guy was trying to keep the first Couple and their family from dying from the poison of the fruit. He tried a bunch of different ways.
After many years, too many to count, the Great Guy sent one of His best Friends to help the people not die. His Friend was also His Son, they were really good friends. They knew that the only way to keep the first Couple’s family from dying is if the Great Son died. But the only people that would not die if the Great Son died for them were those who believed the friends of the Great Son when the friends told them that the Great Son came back to life and wants to meet them. If they would believe the friends, the Great Son would meet them and give them fruit from another tree that would keep them alive forever. The Third Friend of the Great Guy and His Great Son was a Great friendly Ghost, and after the Great Son came alive again He went back to the Great Guy’s house in a far-away land and sent the Great friendly Ghost back to live inside the friends of the Great Son. The Great friendly Ghost would show the friends how to live like the Great Son and eat of the Second Tree until the Great Son and His Great Father came back.
The End.
The Gospel is simple. It only gets complicated when we force it to grow up like us instead of allowing it to be eternally Good News of friendship with the Great Guys.
*Hey Great Guys, we miss You three. Come back so we can all eat good fruit. Amen*
