Day
16 – divinely gifted
[T]here is
within each of us something of the divine. –OWEN GINGRICH
God's ultimate purpose for us is
communion—a "coming-to-one" with Him. To this end, He has created us
in such a way that relating to Him is not only possible but natural. He has
placed within us several of His divine attributes that serve as channels through
which we may interact with Him. God, who inherently loves, has given us the
capacity to love. God, who by His very nature is just, has created us with a
longing for justice. Holy and righteous, He has placed within us a moral bent,
a Moral Law. He, the Source of all purpose, has given us a purposeful nature.
He did not have to do so. He could have fashioned us, His highest creatures,
with none of these attributes. The fact that we possess them is affirmation of
how important divine-human rapport is to God. God placed within us a dash of
His love, a parcel of His justice, a pinch of His morality, and a whiff of His
purpose that we, through these traits, might have fellowship with Him.
I want you to picture in your mind
a vast ocean of clear blue water teeming with many species of beautiful fish.
Now imagine two miles inland a large dry hole. Suppose a trench is dug from the
ocean to that dry hole, transforming it into a salt-water, fish-filled pond.
This is analogous to what God has done for us. He, the Source of all life, has
channeled His water of life into us and has shared with us some of His
wonderful characteristics.
Some people—in particular, the
New-Agers—have viewed these divine attributes within us as evidence of our own
divinity. This, however, is far from the truth. These beautiful traits do not
make us into gods any more than channeling water into that dry hole made it
into an ocean. Just as a serving of peas, when sprinkled with salt, remains a
serving of peas, we remain human even though God has sprinkled us with some of
His attributes.
The take-home point today is that
God so wants to commune with us that He has chosen to "flavor" our
lives with some of His qualities. He has cleft a channel and poured Himself
into us that we might have fellowship with Him. This, in a nutshell, is His
purpose for us. To relate to Him is our reason for being.
SELF-REFLECT
1. Name five of your good qualities that are
reflections of His character.
2. If God’s purpose for you is a loving relationship
with Him, how well (on a scale of 1-10) are you
fulfilling your life’s purpose?
3. Determine now to fellowship with God through
the wonderful traits He has given you.
Daily Quotation
Owen Gingrich, “More Than
Machines,” in Kelly Monroe, Finding God at Harvard (Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 1996), 272.
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