but we see Him...

If you happen to read this, you'll know that I don't do a lot of writing these days.  The privilege of directing the World Orphans Mobilization Department and the honor and delight of being a wife and mothers to two little girls...keeps me pretty busy and doesn't leave a lot of time for blogging :)  

But I digress...  I have these words floating around in my head, "...but we see Him".

Our church is embarking on teaching through the book of Hebrews (which I'm super excited about - all the sermons can be found HERE.  We're only on Chapter 2, so you can catch up and listen along :)

The sermon this morning was on Chapter 2:5-9

For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere,

“What is man, that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man, that you care for him?

You made him for a little while lower than the angels;
you have crowned him with glory and honor,
putting everything in subjection under his feet.”

Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

My paraphrase... The writer is quoting from Psalms, and when he talks about Jesus being made a little lower than the angels, he's referring to Jesus becoming a man. But even though Jesus became a man, he was still fully God, so everything was in subjection to Him, AND His perfect life allowed for His death to serve as the final sacrifice, making us right with The Father.

Our pastor spent a while talking about the verse that says, "At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him." It only takes a glance around our lives and/or around the world to see the evidence of sin and brokenness. It may be on the tip of our tongue to ask, "Where was God when...." You fill in that blank. That person got sick. That child died. I lost my job. The wars rage on. The earthquakes and floods destroy lives. Those children are suffering....

BUT....

But we see him. In the midst of the pain and suffering, by the grace of God, we see him, namely Jesus, who tasted death for everyone. That is the hope of the Gospel, that Jesus made a way for us to know the Father. We can know Him now, in the midst of this life and for eternity.

And as I think about my heart and my life, I find myself thinking about my co-workers and all our church partners. But we see him. That is why we do what we do, because we see him. Raising support to be in ministry is hard. Cross cultural partnership and long-distance relationships, are hard. Spending your life pouring into hurting families, is hard. Caring for children who have been orphaned, is hard. BUT, we see him. It is the hope of Christ that compels and brings joy.

In the peaceful moments where we get a glimpse of how He intended for things to be...we see Him and praise Him. And in the hard moments where we only feel the brokenness, we see Him. He was broken for us, to meet us in our brokenness and make us whole.