"He Wants it Back"

I love this phrase! "He wants it back!"

Referring to the Creator and the created order, the created rhythm. He wants it back. But what and why?

All creatures of our God and King. It all belongs to Him!

"For everything, absolutely everything above and below, visible and in visible, rank after rank of angles - everything got started in Him and finds its purpose in Him." - MSG, Colossians 1:16

He wants our resources back, yes, that is obvious to me. But he also wants our life rhythms back. The heart behind what and why we act. The motivation. The secret place. He wants the secret place back! He wants sex back, He wants our jobs back, He wants or free time back, He wants our thoughts back. He wants to hold all these things captive, but He wants us to choose to give them back.

To some, this may sound controlling and possessive... To others this is beautiful. I think it depends on who you know the Creator to be. The truth is that He is Father and He is Love. Like no other father and no other love than you have ever experienced in full. That is our Creator. Part of Knowing Him is trusting who He is; that He is Father and that He is good. If He is Father and He is Love, then calling back His creations and His created order is the most beautiful thing imaginable!

There is a maturing process in which we are first loved because He is Love, and we are given free will because we were created in His image. Second, we can choose to grow to believe and personalize that truth. And third, we can then respond by seeking the Creator's heart for all things, especially the deep things. Not just for giving us free will and loving us freely, but for letting our free will thrive in the created order and grow beautiful in the environments and communities where we find ourselves.

He wants it back.

He wants us to partake in the awesomeness that He created sex to be. Not just the organism or the fun or the procreation, but also the beauty of choosing to be selfless in how one loves another. The beauty of choosing to respect another individual by being intentional with such an extreme and natural drive. The beauty of waiting until trust and communication are strong to then mutually give and receive in such a physical way, and, conversely, to mutually give and receive sex because trust and communication are strong.... Both regardless of how ones feels in the heat of the moment (or not). To experience the beauty of self controle not because we "should" or because of social contracts, but because self controle is rooted much deeper. It's rooted in the way we shop for clothes and make our clothes. It's rooted in the way we shop for food and grow our food. Its rooted in the traditions that our cultures have held onto, for whatever reasons. It's rooted in the elevated value of the whole rather than the elevated value of the self. It's linked in the way we are connected to the earth, because from the earth God provides. It's related not just to if we eat McDonalds or food from the farmers market. But rather, it's related to our relationship with McDonalds and McDonalds relationship to the earth and to the Creator and Sustainer of the earth. As well as our relationship to the vender at the farmers market and the venders relationship to the earth and to the Creator and Sustainer of the earth.

Imagine how much more beautiful sex would be if our children learned the early and simple lesson of valuing the dirt they play in because God created it, and because they come to trust that it brings life to flora as well as communicates its needs of water or sun depending. Imagine how much more beautiful sex would be if sex was a physical response between two humans that mirrored the other rhythms of life - of the mutual give and receive of the ecosystems, of the give and receive of jobs, of the give and receive of our physical need.

He wants us to partake in the awesomeness of working as He created it to be. To give of oneself for the purpose of getting a return. To create. Whether it be the creation of a cabinet, of a house, of a lesson plan, of a medical remedy, of a homework assignment, or of a delivery rout. He wants us to take joy in what we do and to "do all things as into Him."

What if we really worked like that? What if we really set out to do all things as unto Him? To view work and labor as a gift rather than a curse. In Genesis, Adam was called to tend to the garden before he and Eve were ever cursed. In Genesis 1:26-27, the Creator said: "Let us make human beings in our nature so that they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, and, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of the earth."

I believe that with the New Covenant that Jesus has offered, we are living in the "already but net yet." The old curse has been over come, and for that reason, I choose to live in the knowledge that work is a blessing and that when it doesn't feel like it, that I'm not living in the created rhythm.

He wants us to partake in the awesomeness of free time as He created it to be. To use our time wisely. To use our time to flourish in our gifts. Not to get board nor to be unnecessarily busy.

He wants us to partake in the awesomeness of our thoughts as He created them to be. To explore His universe with imagination and awe. To set our mind on a course of intentionality. With purpose and with accountability.

He wants it back. He calls us back to His created rhythm. But we get to choose how much we join in.