Worthy
I could hardly keep a straight face as 8-year-old Melly stopped mid-sentence and came almost nose-to-nose with me. She looked right into my eyes. She cocked her head one direction, then the other, still staring. Finally, with a deep sigh, she verbalized her thoughts.
“We have a black spot in the center of our eyes with black around the outside. You have black in the inside with blue on the outside. That means you’re not human.” It was obvious that she was quite proud of her revelation and that she had finally made sense of the confusion in her head. She then scanned the other American girls in the room. “These two are not human either.” (They had blue eyes as well.) “But this one… she is human.” (She had dark brown eyes.)
I began trying to translate this to my friends, when Melly interrupted again. “Only animals like elephants and snakes and rhinoceroses have blue eyes. You are animals. Only black eyes are humans.” I told her that there were also humans with green eyes, and she was incredulous, demanding to know what country had such people. We had to stifle our laughter, when we realized that she really believed what she had deduced. Melly lived far inland on an island that rarely had guests. Nearly all of her life experiences had involved the 150 residents of that island. Her whole worldview was shaped in that place. She could only make conclusions based on what she knew.
When I was a child, flannelgraphs had just about run their course. However, I still remember a number of blue boards with multi-colored, cloth cut outs of Old Testament characters and nativity scenes. That, accompanied by some Sunday School workbooks and some Bible story picture books at home, encompassed my understanding of the Truth.
Our recent trip to Melly’s village changed her perspective about humanity forever. And in the same way, the Father uses life experiences to reveal more and more to us about who He is! Through the painful, stretching and sometimes confusing periods of our lives, He emerges from the flannelgraph and becomes REAL. And His realness changes our perspective forever.
In the past, I have written about how I love when He introduces Himself to me by a new name. In serious illness, He has come to me as Healer. In loneliness, He’s come to me as Friend. And the list goes on! Recently, I was putting together a worship set for our local fellowship, and the topic was Creation. As I sang through the song set and pondered the words, I was drawn to my knees, overwhelmed by how He is Worthy to receive our praise!
Great is the Lord and most Worthy of praise! His greatness no one can fathom!
Psalm 145:3
Why can no one fathom it? Perhaps, like Melly, we’ve just never seen it before. The difference is, she has an excuse! Of course she’d never seen blue eyes before! But what about us? Do we have an excuse?
For since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
Romans 1:20
From this, I would have to conclude that we don’t have an excuse! Why has it just now sunk in to me that He is Worthy??? Probably because I have a hard head and walk around with my eyes closed a lot. Oh, to be in a spirit of humility and attentiveness more often!
After I met Him as Worthy the other day, it changed the way I looked at life. Up to this point, my life has resonated with Isaiah 61:1-3. It says that with the Spirit of the Sovereign Lord upon me, I am anointed to speak good news to the poor, bring freedom to those in bondage, comfort those who mourn and more! It’s been my joy to do this for the last few years. But what’s the point? What is the point of people becoming free and whole? Then what? If my life purpose is for that alone, it seems simply humanitarian in nature. Lots of people are in the business of fixing problems.
But when I went back to this passage after I met Worthy, a new part of that passage glowed before my eyes!
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor.
Isaiah 61:3b
THIS is the point! Not for people to be healed and problem-free! It’s so that they will root in and grow to become huge spiritual trees that proclaim He is Worthy! He is worthy of more praise than He is getting from Planet Earth right now, isn’t He?
Do we see God as so Great and Worthy that our life purpose is to actively recruit more worshippers? What does it look like to live a life that results in God receiving more praise?
I will extol the Lord at all times; His praise will always be on my lips.
Psalm 34:1
O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
Psalm 51:15
Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.
Psalm 63:3
It starts by speaking His praises! It has been convicting to me to consider how much comes out of my mouth that is NOT praiseworthy!
Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?
James 3:10-11
Certainly this is a good place to start! What if we spent more time with praise on our lips, recounting what He has done for us? What happened when the captives were brought back from Zion?
Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.”
Psalm 126:2
I love that passage! God revealed Himself to them as the Rescuer. They overflowed with joy and praise. And every nation who observed them acknowledged the greatness of their King. They recruited more worshippers by their words and their lives!
Father, forgive us when we reduce you to a two-dimensional flannelgraph figure. Forgive us when we have such a narrow view of you that we make false generalizations of you, like Melly did with my blue eyes. Forgive us when we use our mouths both as vessels of cursing and vessels of praise. It shouldn’t be like that! You, Worthy One, deserve more praise than you are getting! And it is the least we can do to devote our lives to the recruiting of more worshippers! May your Spirit be upon us to share your truth of healing and restoration so that, as it says in Isaiah 61, there will be a vast forest of oaks, planted for the display of your splendor!
