Tag: exile

It Won’t Always Be So

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head,    and you shall bruise his heel.  GENESIS 3:15

Humanity for millenia has sensed a deep inner dislocation. Things are not the way they should be. Long ago, God whispered the first promise, “It won’t always be so.”

Advent is a time in which we reflect on the once and future king. Advent comes from the Latin meaning “to come.” In advent we await the end of exile. Deep in each one of us we realize that somehow, somewhere paradise got lost and we don’t know how to find it.

In Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve chose exile, God wonderfully whispered, “It will not always be so.” This is the First Promise or the Proto-Evangelium or First Gospel.

As this Advent season starts, let us reflect on the myriad of years that went by until we saw this inaugurated in Christ. Let us live with eager expectation.

Let us celebrate this once and future king.

Home and The End of Exile

 

home

 

 

 

Psa. 90:1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place
in all generations.
Psa. 90:2 Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

Home evokes a lot of ideas  and memories. “Home” is the place that truly fits and suits us. We were made to know and serve God, to live in his presence and enjoy his love and beauty.

However, because we wanted to be our own Saviors and Lords, we lost God, and therefore we wander in the world and experience what the philosopher Heidegger called unheimlichkeit. The word is translates as “eeriness” or “uncanniness” but literally it means “away from home.” Heidegger is referring to the anxiety and spiritual nausea that comes from never feeling at home in the world.

Psa. 90:3 You return man to dust
and say, “Return, O children of man!”
Psa. 90:4 For a thousand years in your sight
are but as yesterday when it is past,
or as a watch in the night.
Psa. 90:5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream,
like grass that is renewed in the morning:
Psa. 90:6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
in the evening it fades and withers.

This world doesn’t address the needs of our heart. We long for a love that can’t be lost, for escape from death, for the triumph of justice over wrong. But such things will never be found here.

Psa. 90:16 Let your work be shown to your servants,
and your glorious power to their children.
Psa. 90:17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
and establish the work of our hands upon us;
yes, establish the work of our hands!

When we find home, it is indeed the end of exile.