Ever have one of those days when you are glad that you expect people to disappoint you? It’s so much easier than expecting the best only to have your hopes dashed again. I am having one of those weeks. Professionally, personally and “faithfully,” brothers and sisters have fallen far short of what I expected. Sadly, I didn’t have very high expectations to start with. And I know there are many folks who would say the same thing about me falling short of their expectations.

Biblically, this should come as no surprise. Look at the children of Israel. The Old Testament has one story after another of God reaching out, giving us everything we could ever want, only to be disappointed by us. We got ourselves kicked out of the Garden of Eden. While God was helping set us straight again, talking with Moses on the mountain, we were busy building a golden calf to worship! God sends prophets, we ignore them and kill them. God sends judges, and we demand Kings (note how well that’s always worked out – but don’t expect us to learn, you’ll only be disappointed). God tries to tell us what’s important and we carry on doing what is important to us.

God comes to earth as a human to talk with us face to face. No need for veils, hiding our faces, or turning away. God comes as a little baby who grows, opens the scriptures to us and tells us, very clearly what God wants. The message is not complex. There’s no Job-like monologue from God telling us that we can never, ever, understand God, the universe, or anything (which, it seems to me, God must be thinking sometimes; I would be). We are told, clearly and often, that God loves us and that we are to love God and our neighbors.  This is repeated throughout the Gospels and reaffirmed in the early Christian church in Acts and the Epistles of Paul, John, Peter and others.

But, it seems, we still don’t get it. And, we’re in good company. Take the disciples, for example. Having sat at the feet of Jesus for three years, they still don’t get it. They argue about who is most important, and they try to tell Jesus what to do (because, after all, we know better, right?). And, after everything goes exactly as foretold, they run and hide as if they’d never heard about any of this.

Many people say there are no more miracles, that the age of miracles is over. I say it’s a miracle God doesn’t wipe the board clean, again, and start over.  Look at the way we treat each other. Look at what we have done with God’s simple instructions. Look at how complicated we make things, how much we do for our convenience, and how we twist things around to suit our purposes.

But there is at least one miracle– one that leaves me dumbstruck even at my worst times. God loves us. God loves you and me, even though we don’t get it. God loves us right where we are, as we are. And thankfully, God loves us enough not to leave us where we are. God continues to beckon us forward, to nudge and cajole us. And if God continues to love us, regardless of what we’ve done, the least we can do is love one another and treat each other as God models for us.

Sometimes this happens. People treat others as if they are children of God– beautiful works of our common Creator. Occasionally, people do consider others’ feelings, treat them with dignity and show them God’s love, even at a sacrifice to themselves. Sometimes they take the time it takes to do right by others instead of merely honoring their convenience. Sometimes they do this professionally, personally, and even do it to a brother or sister in Christ.

Perhaps I am too old to expect this, but I am not too old to recognize it, when it happens, as the miracle that it is: the miracle of reaching past our human nature to grasp for what God has made us to be; the miracle of love and grace shining through us to the world – brightening our own little corner of the world and the lives of those around us. And, I like to think, adding to the smile on the face of God.

Read Psalm 8, and remember: God loves you UNCONDITIONALLY, and pass it on!

Mike

Today’s reading: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+8&version=NRSV