Through Every Window He Pleases
On astronauts, an 82-year-old mathematician, and the kindness of God breaking through the news cycle
My interaction with the headlines has been brief the last few months: a glance here, a clip there. But I want to tell you what has struck me in those glances. I have been astounded at the loving kindness of the Lord.
Isaiah describes God as “the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy.” And then, in the same breath, God says something we would never dare invent: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit” (Isaiah 57:15). He dwells on high, higher than any spacecraft will ever climb, and yet he wants us to know him. He stoops to dwell with the lowly.
Two chapters later, the prophet shows us how far that stooping goes. God looked down on mankind, “and he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation” (Isaiah 59:16). Human language to describe God’s response to human need. He looked. He saw our condition. He wondered that no one could save us. And so he gave himself. He sent his only Son, Jesus, for people who could not lift themselves an inch, and even worse, actively reject him at every turn. And still, he is calling out to the world to turn to him and live. There are too many ways to count, but a few examples have stood out to me.
A window on the way to the moon
In April, the Artemis II crew flew farther from Earth than any humans in history. One astronaut, Victor Glover, a Christian, was asked on the way out whether he had anything to say. Looking back at the Earth through that small window, he talked about reading the Bible and seeing what was done for us who were created: that we live on a kind of spaceship too, one made to give us a place to exist in the cosmos. He called Earth an oasis in all that emptiness. He alluded to the reality that there is purpose for our existence in a world that feels random. That we are known and called to know Christ.
Days later, just as they slipped behind the moon and lost contact with Earth for forty minutes, Glover used his last words on the broadcast to quote Christ on the greatest commandment: love God with all that you are, and love your neighbor as yourself. But more powerful than the alluding words was the astonishing view that we got to see of our home. Tucked away in the massive cosmos created by a God more powerful than we can imagine and more good than we can conceive. The crew traveled a quarter-million miles and came no closer to where he dwells. And yet the One who inhabits eternity was nearer to them, and to us, than that window glass.
When the crew came home, Glover said the gratitude he felt for God was too big for one body to hold. I think it’s worship bursting forth. When we catch a glimpse of the glory of God in the created world and universe, it takes our breath away. But even more, when we catch a glimpse of the Son, it makes us actually begin to live and breathe as we have our being in him. And our whole life wants to burst out in praise to him.
Two men at a table
This week I watched Stephen Bartlett of The Diary of a CEO interview John Lennox, the Oxford mathematician. On one side of the table: a young entrepreneur, agnostic, visibly hungering after truth, asking questions about God, suffering, heaven, and wrestling with whether any of it is true. On the other: an 82-year-old man who has interrogated his faith for seventy years and found Christ at the bottom of every question, the source of truth and salvation.
What moved me was not Lennox’s arguments, though they are good ones. It was watching his compassion in his interaction with Stephen Bartlett. There was no condescension, just an old man looking at a young man and seeing “someone of infinite value, made in the image of God.” His presence seemed to be an invitation to come and see the wonder of Christ, our Creator and Redeemer, who satisfies our every need.
I kept thinking of Jesus’ words: I am the way, the truth, and the life. Here was a seeker circling the truth, and a servant of the truth radiating it and pointing to the Truth. There is something uniquely compelling about a man who has stood for the faith his whole life and grown gentler doing it. That peace is itself an argument. Bartlett said as much: the most persuasive thing about Lennox wasn’t in his books, it was him. Stephen said he’s been noticing this phenomenon, a peace and contentment that has been a feature of the Christians on the show. He mentioned Wes Huff.
Cautiously curious about Christ
Huff. He’s Canadian, no wonder he’s great. ;) From being a sort of expert in European martial arts to being remarkably gifted at articulating the historical credibility of Scripture, he defends in a different register. This has brought him to the studios of secular podcasters, and to Joe Rogan, one of the largest (maybe the largest?) platforms in the podcast world. What strikes me is not the giftedness of Huff, but the rare combination of humility, confidence, and charity he brings. I’ve watched him in interviews with guests that are uncomfortable and crass, and he treats them with warmth and perseverance. Like he’s corralling them to look up and see; he wants fellow image-bearers to see the beauty of Christ and what he’s done.
That willingness to go into uncomfortable places is not a strategy. It is an imitation, I think. Jesus is still seeking and saving the lost, and the people he sends know something about themselves: we were not better people. Christians are not the moral upper tier. We are simply people who have found that Jesus Christ is the absolute best, and we want to spend our lives saying so.
Not abandoned
This is not coincidence. The Word of God is living and active. His Spirit is moving. His grace is available (astonishingly, offensively available, it seems). The high and holy One has not stayed distant. The God who looked down and wondered that there was no intercessor is still broadcasting his salvation, and he is putting his invitation in front of the world through every window he pleases, whether that be in a spacecraft, or from a podcast studio.
The news will give you plenty of reasons for despair if that is what you go looking for. Look again. One of my favorite verses in all the Bible is Psalm 34:8: “Oh taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one that trusts in him.”
Underneath the headlines, the Lord is calling people to him in Christ. He has been doing it since Isaiah’s day. He is doing it still.
This is an outstanding, concise blogpost. Great observations about truth and kindness working together. Well done!
This was so good and uplifting, Kara, thank you. "There is something uniquely compelling about a man who has stood for the faith his whole life and grown gentler doing it." May this be all of us as we are transformed by looking to Christ.