"Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy..."
It made me smile, but I laughed a little even more when I realized this passage from 1 Peter, when taken out of context of course, is ironic to the life that we could potentially live together--with distance (potentially) being a significant factor-- and I thought it was really just too ironic to keep between the two of us (should someone other than him actually be reading this).
It had been two days or so since I'd seen him (which doesn't sound all that bad, but considering the sporadic nature of the past two weeks... we can rarely say for certain when we'll see each other). I think the next time we have to be separated for any number of days, weeks, months, etc. I'll have to look to that verse for some "inexpressible and glorious joy"... though not the same intensity of joy that it is when I believe in Christ, my God.
Speaking of 1Peter, we are going through it in a small group I meet with weekly. We're doing chapters 1 and 2, and holy moly... to let the truths of those words sink in is almost overwhelming and entirely inspiring (every time!). God created us to live a certain way, sin came in a screwed it all up, but truly-- The Word of God... the Bible, unmasks it all. Peter has practically issued a call to arms against sin and the ways of sin. There's a message that has been on my heart lately, and it is stronger and more clear: There is a better life that has been created for us. We go about creating our own little worlds, thinking that we have to make it up as we go along. However, as C.S. Lewis has put it in my favorite of his sermons (The Weight of Glory):
"Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
The end :).
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