May 16, 2011

Stealth

We just had a mini family reunion and one of those visiting was my severely autistic niece. Unable to talk, Mikayla uses limited sign language to get her point across. She loves beds, blankets and closets and when she saw my large walk in closet it was as though the heavens had opened up. Recognizing the glory on Mikayla’s face her mother Mandy redirected the 12 year-olds attention to another room, which didn’t have clothes for playing dress up. After about a half an hour later Mikayla emerged from the room in stealth mode. A light bulb went off in Mandy’s head and she laughed, “Oh, that’s it, she’s mad at me. She’s not looking at me and she’s trying to sneak back to the closet. She thinks I won’t see her.” The whole scene was so Adam and Eve-ish!

1 comment:

Steve Corey said...

Gail;

-----The ostrich with its head in the sand is embedded in human nature. In fact, our five senses given only to the detection of the physical universe is God’s sticking mankind’s head in the sand. “What are you going to do with this situation?” seems to be His question. It would be an unfair question had it not been for His participation in the situation, too.
-----Decisions are made in the circumstances of the moment. If only the physical aspects of the moment are considered - the when and the where - the moral relevance of the decision has little more chance than a long, long shot. That is the thoughtless ostrich, the little Mikayla mistaking her not seeing Mommy for Mommy’s not seeing her. All consideration is limited to where she wants to be and when she wants to be there. Any consideration beyond that is up to the imagination, because all the five senses can serve for thought is the where and the when. And if the imagination is upon that, too, then how dark the next step will be!
-----“I am a sojourner on earth; hide not Thy commandments from me!” (Ps 119:19) Have you ever noticed how important an inkling can be? We are steered by them, because our minds so incline to what they intuitively perceive. Then the next pathway onto which we’re diverted grows broader as it is further traveled. The when and the where are certain circumstances of that momentary diversion, but the what of it comes only by inkling served through imagination.
-----God is absolutely circumstantial in our physical situation. He has physically interacted with us, causing the history of it to be written in a physical book we can physically read. He even became physically present Himself. I believe He continues to physically interact in our circumstances very, very subtly, and soon to come, He will very, very prominently. But for now, we must grasp His reality by comparing the evidences of His interactions (of which the Bible is the pinnacle) with the nature of His commandments. And He has not hidden His commandments so that we can not pull our head out of the sand by powering our imaginations with them. He has placed them right there in the pinnacle of His evidence.
-----So the Psalmist says, “I have laid up Thy word in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee.” (Ps 119:11) Memorization is cute. It is good and beneficial, too, but it’s mostly cute. It’s a head thing and serves deliberate thought. But inklings arise from the heart. The heart is made of experiences. Obeying a Scripture adds experience to the cute memorization which renders it into inklings immediately available to the imagination. Imagination adds the what to the when and where of the moment so the following of the inkling can begin layering upon the decision the why and the how as well. Although God made this world an ostrich kind of place, He expects us to render our imaginations into eyes useful to godly decisions by the building of our hearts from the doing of His Word.

Love you all,
Steve Corey