not what it appears to be

today's readings: 2 Kings 23:31-25:30, Acts 22:17-23:10, Psalm 2:1-12, Proverbs 18:13

so the theme today seemed to be "things are not what they appear to be". and when i googled that phrase to get an appropriate pic for this blog, i got some crazy results! as you can probably imagine. but the one above i thought was cool and interesting, so i chose it. apparently it IS what it appears to be, and the only reason it came up is because the phrase "appears to be" was in the description... that it appears to be taken at the ocean. anyway, enough about the pic.

in the NT, Paul appears to be a troublemaker, but he's actually a Roman citizen. this dichotomy causes some drama, as they realize what they've done to a Roman citizen. and Paul, being the jerk he is :) makes the most of it. he also plays one group against another by yelling "i'm in trouble because i believe in life after death!" which is sort of true... but not really. kind of "not what it appears to be."

but the OT is the most fun example of this. some guy with the amazingly freaky name of Evil-Merodach comes to power! holy cow. his NAME is Evil-Merodach. i mean... Merodach already sounds pretty evil. but they didn't stop there. they actually put the word "Evil" before it!!

but guess what... he's a nice guy! talk about things not being what they look like!

and you probably can guess where i'm going with this. so often in our lives, things are not what they appear to be. it always sounds scarier in your head, but when you say it out loud in the light of day to your friend, it sounds much less scary, and even a little silly. even the scariest of things... like cancer... lose the power to chill us when we look at them in the face of eternity. death isn't the last chapter... it's the preface to the REAL story. (thanks to CS Lewis for that idea) when we realize that, finding out that a child has died doesn't seem so pointlessly horrible anymore. children being taken home to be with their heavenly Father actually sounds pretty right. if nothing else, it helps put it all in perspective.

thank You, God, that things aren't what they seem to be, but that You are the ground of our being, and that when we dig deep enough, we find You there.