Faithful

The Bible says God is faithful.

It seems to me that so many of the writers of the Bible were compelled to write about God’s faithfulness is a statement about how faithless men are.

God is faithful.

Duh!

That sounded condescending. Hmmmmmm... no... it was condescending. Sorry.

But consider the idea for a moment.

The universe is made up of galactic clusters, made up of galaxies, made up of stars, made up of molecules, made up of atoms, made up of fermions (or hadrons) (and behave through the forces of bosons), which are made up of quarks, which combine in triune fashion to form the fabric of time and space.

At that level of reality, where effect can precede cause, where randomness seems to rule, is a presence, an intelligence, which sings the universe into being... vibrations of nearly infinitely small threads strum like violin strings in at least 12 dimensions, the song of reality.

The universe exists because something, Someone, sings it into being.

Of course God is faithful. If He were not, we would not be here.

Science fiction movies often depict black holes as these large discs, enormous balls of darkness, swallowing all within their reach. They aren’t that big at all.

The black disc pictured in such movies is merely the event horizon, where light itself is not capable of escaping the voraciousness of infinitely collapsed matter. A black hole is a singularity. It has no dimensions at all. It has collapsed so fully into itself that all that is left is gravity. Even black holes large enough to force galaxies (sometimes thousands of them) to dance to its voice has no height, no width, no depth. It is a mathematical point in space.

Of course God is faithful. Such wonders shout His existence. The Bible says even nature sings to Him. Of course it does.

We need to be told God is faithful because faithfulness is difficult for us. It is easier to believe in an unfaithful God than to accept that the sorrows of life are our own doing, or the result of a complex dance of the forces He has set in motion to hold the universe together.

We are the ones who are unfaithful.

Being faithful is difficult for us.

According to enrichment journal on the divorce rate in America:
The divorce rate in America for first marriage is 41%
The divorce rate in America for second marriage is 60%
The divorce rate in America for third marriage is 73%

I, (Bride/Groom), take you (Groom/Bride), to be my (wife/husband), to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until death do us part.

Vows, the firmest of promises we can make, are frequently broken.

God is faithful.

No wonder the Bible says it so often. We need to hear the repetition because, sadly, we have trouble with the concept.

I’m not perfect in this regard. I’m not writing from some lofty position of superiority. Jesus said to merely look at a woman and want more than is holy is to commit adultery. I am guilty of that.

I have tried to control that part of me, to avert my eyes, rein in my nature. During my marriage I never went further than that. I didn’t stray from what I swore I would do. I never kissed another, never held another.

That vow is ashes now. Because of faithlessness.

And that’s OK. Well, maybe not OK, but it is as it is.

God is faithful.

He can be nothing else.

We are sometimes confused by the idea of a faithful God, a loving God, because we are confused by our own inability to remain true.

Sometimes folk think that God is somehow demanding things of us... love, devotion, adoration, worship. I don’t think that is the way it is, really.

I think God is love, devotion, adoration, worship. He formed us, not just our bodies, but all of us, to be capable of returning that love, devotion, adoration, worship. And in order for us to be capable of it, we must have the ability to be incapable of it. That is the forbidden fruit we gleefully pick in the orchards He planted within our hearts.

But...

But...

But when we do turn to Him and let our hearts love, rein in our natures with devotion, look above us, through the ceilings of our homes and churches, beyond the swirl of our galaxy, past the edge of the universe 14 billion light years away, when we look past this reality, we must fall on our faces and worship the God that holds it all together... gently supports the vast distances and the vast depths, from the vibrating wall of the Big Bang’s echo to the dimensionless enormity of the largest of black holes.

People wonder about faith. How can one believe in things that cannot be seen? Cannot be felt?

How can we not?

I have faith in these truths because I sense them with the very fabric that makes me, me.

God is faithful.

He is that way so we can be faith full.