English: Iron filings (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Iron Filings and Magnetic Forces

Sometimes all of life seems to be a series of random, unrelated, and chaotic events. When you examine the whole of it- births, deaths, relationships forming, relationships dissolving, successes, failures, goals achieved, and stinging disappointments, it sometimes is difficult to see the meaning in any of it. There is no discernible pattern. Nothing seems to make sense. It can all seem so……random.

To use an illustration- life can sometimes seem like random iron filings scattered about on a piece of blank paper. What we see is scattered blots arranged with no particular rhyme or reason, forming no discernible pattern whatsoever. This remains the case until a strong magnet is applied and the filings begin to submit themselves to the strong pull of unseen forces and orient themselves accordingly. Such a powerful force is only evident by its effect.

This is the power of Christ in our lives. As His power is applied to our lives, all things reorient themselves in submission to His will. The magnetic force of His Spirit pulls the events of our lives together in a way that reveals order and intention. We see patterns instead of randomness. Reason instead of chaos. Purpose instead of confusion. Amazingly, this power effects not just the present and the future, but also how we view events of the past as well.

God, as a Spirit, is timeless and eternal. He is therefore never bound by time’s chains. He breaks the limitations of the past and our memory, understanding the way we see the past as surely as He makes the past come alive in his work. Whether over the eons it took to carve the Grand Canyon or in just the moment it took to form a flake of snow.

So then – it is Christ’s living presence applied to our lives that is the way by which we find wholeness out of brokenness, meaning out of suffering, order out of disorder, and purpose out of purposelessness. When we allow ourselves and our lives to be ordered by the power of His Spirit, we find that He does indeed, make all things new again. Amen.