Through the Lens of Jim

When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!  Hebrews 9:11-14

The ostrich poking his beak into our car is not as graceful perhaps as the swans on Jim's "Journaling for Growth" Blog, but it is certainly taking a bird's eye view of things. Unfortunately, that is the only view some ever take of Scripture for usually we use the expression "taking a Bird's Eye view" as seeing things from a distance. So, I guess in truth this ostrich wasn't taking a bird's eye view at all, but one up close and personal, much to the unease of my wife.

If you take the opportunity to read Jim's Blogs, both  "Journaling for Growth" and "Love One Another", you'll learn how much there is up close and personal in Scripture.  Jim doesn't just give you the bird's eye view, he gets down in the dust and gives the worm's eye view as well. You learn the depth of God's Word .

It reminded me of my childhood when I wanted, and got, for Christmas a microscope.

That's right, as a kid I wanted to be a scientist.  First an herpetologist, then an entomologist, then a chemist, then an anthropologist and when I finally did go to college, I was majoring in sociology, a social science. Oh, I had a lot of interests and I got pretty involved in each for a while, but I missed the most important of all in what I considered excursions into the mysteries and life and a search for truth. I ignored the Scriptures. I considered them as nice little tales mixed with a lot of boring stuff that was hard to pronounce and difficult to read.

Now I see it all differently. I think what I discovered is exactly what Jim knows. Scripture is multi-layered that you could study forever and always find another truth.

That's why my microscope came to mind. It was a very nice microscope. It had several lens on a disc you could turn. Each lens was more powerful than the last. If you put an insect on the slide and peered through the first lens, it appeared bigger, but still similar to what you saw with the naked eye. But each turn of lens reveled more about the structure of the creature until the last lens where you saw the fine veins and delicate colors of its wings, which had appeared as colorless with your bird's eye view.

And that is what you get when you begin to see how all the Bible fits into a story of God's relationship to man, into the story of atonement through Christ's sacrifice and salvation through his future return, and all the colors of our God.

Thank you, Jim, for taking the time and putting in the effort to help us see these things.