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There are many crossings a human will make in a lifetime.

Our introduction to life is just the first.

From the dim, watery, stillness of the womb, we are thrust out into the bright light of day; into this dizzying kaleidoscope we call life. 

Our lungs, filled with fluid and collapsed upon themselves like waxy, paper bags, suddenly inflate, as our intricately crafted nervous system reacts to the sudden change in temperature and environment. We breathe, for the first time on our own; the oxygen of this yet unknown world moving into our bloodstream and coursing through our bodies.

With a single, magical, breath, our circulatory system reorients itself and our heart transitions from right ventricle dominant to left ventricle dominant. The left ventricle will be responsible for sending blood throughout our body, while the right ventricle functions in an entirely new role of sending oxygen-poor blood to our lungs.

Breathing. Sentient. Alive.

A rapid and complex adaption has taken place, changing us from dependent fetus to independent newborn. We are the same and yet we are entirely changed.

This is our first crossing.

Fully formed, yet still a child, years will pass before we start to put away childish things. Sometime around our 16th or 17th birthday, we will begin our next crossing, moving into biological adulthood.

This crossing will be saturated with change, transitioning us in a few short years to full independence. We will emerge, butterfly-like, with our newly inflated wings fluttering in the breeze and a strong sense of our own values and personal boundaries. We will feel transformed, unconstrained, ready to take flight.

Yet we will also still feel, for all the world, like the bemused caterpillars we once were. We imagined we would know how to navigate this world above but it is largely still a mystery, a vast expanse that threatens to swallow us whole. Adulthood is a strange, new terrain.

We have made our second crossing and we cannot go back.

We will live several lives throughout adulthood, each one connected to the last by moments and memories, intersecting and joining together like the gossamer thread of a spider’s web. Sometimes we will recognise the echoes of ourselves from another time, another place, but in other moments, our glances backward will both bewilder and astonish; who is that stranger that carries our face?

We will perhaps begin to understand, too, that all of this life, this experience that humans share, is another kind of crossing, a change from this to that. 

Yet it is also a journey through a world that, at its core, will fail to satisfy us, deep within our soul.

We realise we were always meant to change, it’s in our DNA. But into what we wonder. Is all of this life meant for something more? Who am I really meant to become?

“If I find in myself desires nothing in this world can satisfy,
I can only conclude that I was not made for here
If the flesh that I fight is at best only light and momentary,
Then of course I’ll feel nude when to where I’m destined I’m compared.

Am I lost or just found? On the straight or on the roundabout of the wrong way?
Is this a soul that stirs in me, is it breaking free, wanting to come alive?
Cos my comfort would prefer for me to be numb
An avoid the impending birth of who I was born to become.

Speak to me in the light of the dawn,
Mercy comes with the morning.
I will sigh and with all creation groan as I wait for hope to come for me.
For we, we are not long here,
Our time is but a breath, so we better breathe it.
And I, I was made to live, I was made to love, I was made to know you.
Hope is coming for me.”

C S Lewis Song | Brooke Fraser

Max Lucado, pastor, speaker, and best-selling author comments, “If we think that this life is all there is to life, then there is no interpretation of our problems, our pain, not even of our privileges. But everything changes when we open up to the possibility that God’s story is really our story too.”

God’s story – the one written in the stars and carried on the wind – is the story of who each one of us was intended to be. It’s a story that confirms we were made for more than just this life, that we’re meant to cross over into something greater, something eternal.

It’s a story of promise; of knowing and being known, of being fully and completely alive.

God is not far from each one of us, as near as the tongue in our mouth, as close as the heart in our chest (Acts 17:28, Romans 10:8). Another kind of life awaits us on the other side with God, but, Jesus says, unless a person is born again, they cannot cross over (John 3:5).

There is another crossing, more important than any we’ve ever made before. One that will cause us to once again pass through water, this time emerging as a new kind of human, breathing a new kind of air, into a new kind of life.

Jesus came preaching of this other kind of life. The gospel of Matthew writes that when Jesus arrived on the scene, he went and resided in the land of Naphtali, the ‘way beyond the sea’, so that the words spoken so long ago by Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled: “the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them, a light has dawned” (Matthew 4:15-16, ESV).

In fact, he was that life itself, and he demonstrated its power through the miraculous; healing sickness, forgiving sins, multiplying bread and fishes, walking on water…raising the dead (Matthew 15:30, Matthew 14:13-33, Luke 8:49-56, John 11:25).

He was the light that dawned in the darkness, illuminating what lies on the other side of the crossing; a kingdom defined by mercy and love, failure and forgiveness, exile and homecoming. Its citizens, he said, were otherworldly; children of light and salt. (Matthew 5:2-11, 13-14, Luke 15:11-32).

He told us how to get there; by going through him. He is the crossing, the gate, the door, the way to this kingdom. No one finds that life, but through him. His is the only name under heaven by which we can be saved.

To believe Jesus really is who he said he is begins another crossing.

“For God loved the world in this way: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Anyone who believes in Him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.” | John 3:16-18, CSB

Moving from skepticism to belief, we choose to pass through water and are buried with Jesus in his death (Romans 6:3-4, Romans 10:9-10). Emerging once again from water, this time we have been reborn, by water and by spirit, into a living hope. From spiritual death comes a resurrected life; the process of radical regeneration through the Spirit has begun (Titus 3:5, Colossians 2:12).

Breathing. Sentient. Alive.

Like newborn babes seeing the world for the first time with wide-eyed wonder, we survey the spiritual landscape that now stretches out in front of us. The real journey – the journey of a lifetime – lies ahead.

But we are not alone in our resurrected life; it comes with the promise of help (Ephesians 1:13-14). The spark that has been lit in our hearts will grow and be sustained by nothing less than the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, renewing and transforming us day by day into the likeness of His image.

Spirituality alive and redeemed to God, yet our mortal body remains at the mercy of time and change. The curse of Eden has not yet been completely undone.

We age and decay, even though inwardly we are being renewed day by day. And though we may die, yet we will live again, of this we are sure. The resurrection of Jesus is our touchstone; we’re confident that what was done in Jesus will be done in us also. The Spirit living in us assures us that we are God’s child.

For this perishable part of us must put on the imperishable, and this mortal part of us, the part that is capable of dying, must put on immortality. After all, mortality cannot inherit the eternal. We must have complete and utter freedom from death. It was promised, long ago in Eden, and so it will be. He who has promised is faithful.

Our earthly existence, clothed in the only body we have ever known, will make one last and great crossing. A final and breathtaking change will occur and we will be instantly and irrevocably clothed in a body which comes from heaven itself; our mortality utterly swallowed up by life.

“I came”, Jesus said, “that they may have life and have it abundantly.” | John 10:10

This will be the moment of our most significant crossing and we will never be the same again.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” | 1 Peter 1:3, CSB

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This article was first published 18 November 2021.

(Not a reader? Take a listen instead ⇓)

Come walk with Me.

Imagine we are once again in Eden, walking together in the cool shade of the trees.

Listen to the sound of the great river, flowing through My garden paradise. Hear the rush of its distributaries, flowing north, east, south, and westward out from My garden. Living water springs from this place, refreshing and pure.

Close your eyes and breathe in the rich, loamy scent of this good earth. There is gold here, and precious stones too, hidden in abundance beneath the surface. Catch the sweet scent of resin floating on the crisp, clean air, the call of the mountain eagle soaring up and away from his nest, the whisper of the wind through the pasture grasses.

I am here with you. I am beside you, all around you. I go before you and I come after you; a burning torch and a defensive shield. I am closer than your very own breath. Nothing will hurt you in this place.

Catch your breath. Rest beside the quiet pools where you will find water for your thirsty soul. Rest here in the stillness. Feel My presence and be restored.

I see your weariness, your unsettled and aching heart. I know your questions and feel your pain. I see the heavy burdens that you are carrying.

Have you forgotten what a life walking with Me should be like? Have you forgotten that I am the One who has breathed life into your dry bones, that I know the very heart of you, and that I love you?

I am your refuge, your redeemer, your restorer. Lay your burdens down.

Rest alongside Me now, beside the still water, and let Me remind you of My love.

You are made for life, an abundant, overflowing, God-shaped and God-filled life. Of everything made in the beginning, your kind alone were made in My image, made to reflect My glory. Body and soul, you are marvellously made.

You were made for belonging, with others like yourself but most of all, with Me.  You were made good, so, so good.

When catastrophe fell in Eden and a great chasm arose between us, I was not defeated. When darkness fell in your world, My light shone even brighter, a shimmering beacon of hope to bring you home. I had known from the beginning that this would happen and I had already made a way.

I sent My light into your world; the glory of My presence cutting through the darkness and lighting your path back to Me. I called you to Me and you heard the sound of My voice. Like a sheep that had wandered and was lost, you have returned to Me, the great shepherd of your soul.

As you drew close to Me, I drew ever closer to you; can you not feel Me close even now? I have not left you, you are not walking alone.

You feel small and insignificant but I tell you, you are My deeply treasured child. Does your heart not stir within you, as My Spirit testifies to this truth?

You say you are weak but I tell you, My power is made perfect in your weakness. I have put eternity deep within you, like treasure in jars of clay.

You say you feel inadequate and unworthy but I tell you that you have been made white like snow, whole and worthy in My righteousness. You say you didn’t know My saving power could look like this and I tell you, this is grace, My grace, and it is sufficient for you.

I am the bedrock on which your feet find firm footing, the Alpha and Omega, encircling you in My safety and protection. I will hide you in the shadow of My feathered wings and My faithfulness will be a shield for you throughout all your days.

I have wept for you, fought for you, bled for you, died for you, and I have been made alive again, for you.

There is nothing I wouldn’t do for you.

Quiet those voices in your head, clamouring to be heard, telling you that you must earn My favour, that you must do something to deserve My love. I have borne the cost of our reconciling, it is My gift to you. I have secured your passage home and I will walk that path with you.

Quiet those voices around you, telling you that simply being in Me isn’t enough. I tell you, I Am leading you and renewing you and transforming you. You need only abide in Me.

The curse of sin is broken. I have broken it and you are free in Me. My life flows into yours, My Spirit breathing its refreshing wind into your heart. Walk with Me and work with Me and you’ll recover your life.

Are you feeling burned out, forced into patterns that are ill-fitting and heavy? Are you tired and anxious, carrying burdens too heavy to bear? I say again, lay those burdens down.

Lift up your weary head and take heart. I am still here, I have always been here and I will never leave you nor forsake you. The good work that I’ve begun in you, I promise faithfully to complete.

Come walk with Me, I’m all you need.

“So you’ll go out in joy, you’ll be led into a whole and complete life. The mountains and hills will lead the parade, bursting with song. All the trees of the forest will join the procession, exuberant with applause. No more thistles, but giant sequoias, no more thornbushes, but stately pines—monuments to me, to God, living and lasting evidence of God.” | Isaiah 55:12-13, MSG

(Not a reader? Take a listen instead ⇓)

 

“He has told you, O human, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” | Micah 6:8 NAS 1977

Knowing And Being Known

At the heart of us all is a deep desire to be known; to be so intimately connected with another person that it’s as if we are no longer two people but one – ‘a single soul dwelling in two bodies.’ There are many of us who are lucky enough to experience that kind of affinity with another person; sharing empathy, support and kinship in a close human relationship like no other. Our experience of marriage, that of committing to another person and them to us, is one of the most intimate and fulfilling relationships we will have in this life.

Yet nothing will compare to knowing and being known by the One who has breathed life into us, animating our flesh and bone and ‘in whom we have our very being.‘

God intended that humanity would seek Him, reach out for him and desire to be close to Him in relationship. He is not far from each one of us, as near as the tongue in our mouth, as close as the heart in our chest. (Acts 17:28, Romans 10:8)

In moments of quiet worship, in stirring songs of devotion, in times of disappointment, heartache and despair, the emotions that overwhelm our hearts all serve to propel us towards seeking and loving the One who rings our hearts like a bell. (Abraham Heschel)

Our days are numbered, yet we were made to walk with God. Perhaps we all feel that pull and longing, in the secret places of our hearts, to return to the place in the beginning, to the cool shade of the garden, where God once walked with us.

A Perfect Eden

In that garden, in the beginning, Adam and Eve were in close relationship with their Creator. The world that existed at that time was ‘very good’, a perfect Eden where God’s glory shone softly between the tall, slim trees and Heaven and Earth were as one. In the middle of the garden, grew two trees; the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life. From one tree Adam and Eve could freely eat, but the other was forbidden to them, prohibited from being eaten and not even to be touched. Life, and life abundantly, flowed from one and certain death would be the result of eating from the other.

It was such a small thing, only one bite, and yet the result of their disobedience was catastrophic. The evil of sin entered God’s good world, and would eventually spread like a dark, cancerous mass across the surface of the earth.

A sentence of death was passed, not just to Adam and Eve, but to all who would come after them. The way to the garden – to the place where God had once walked with them – was barred. The oneness with God that had existed before sin entered the world had been broken and a great chasm now lay between the Creator and His children.

A Communion Of The Heart

This expression, “walking with God” is used often in the Bible and means, ‘not merely God’s knowledge of a person, but also a person’s response to God. Practical obedience, along with a communion of heart and will, are described as “walking with” or “before God.” (Genesis 5:22; Genesis 6:9; Genesis 17:1; Psalm 56:13; Psalm 116:9)’ (Elliots Commentary)

The first person that we’re told ‘walked with God’ after the catastrophe that unfolded in the garden was a man named Enoch (Genesis 5:21-24). Chapter 11 of the book of Hebrews, a famous chapter cataloguing many faithful individuals, tells us that Enoch was taken from this life and didn’t experience death. The commendation of him was of “one who pleased God” (Hebrews 11:5). The word used for walk in the commentary on Enoch’s life in Genesis means, in Hebrew ‘to come, go, walk’. It carries the idea of coming and going with God – that is, that Enoch was in complete union with God and agreement about where they were going together. He walked alongside God on a daily basis, going here and there in life but always at God’s side.

This idea of ‘being at God’s side or being near to God’ being related to faith is recognised by Paul the Apostle in his thoughts about Enoch (Hebrews 11:6). He verbalises what is surely a connection between the two ideas: “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him” (Hebrews 11:5-6, ESV). Walking with God, Paul seems to be making clear, is synonymous with a ‘faith that pleases God’.

“Can two walk together without agreeing where to go?” | Amos 3:3, BSB

“Will, then, God walk with a person, guiding, shielding, strengthening him, if that person is not in harmony with Him? He (Amos) illustrates the truths that all effects have causes, and that from the cause you can infer the effect. The “two” (here) are God’s judgment and the prophet’s word. These do not coincide by mere chance, no more than two persons pursue in company the same end without previous agreement. The prophet announces God’s judgment because God has commissioned him; the prophet is of one mind with God, therefore the Lord is with him, and confirms his words.” (Elliot’s Commentary)

An Invitation To Deeper Relationship

Abraham, called the friend of God (James 2:23), was summoned deeper into relationship by the invitation of God to ‘walk with Him’

“I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless.” | Genesis 17:1, NIV

Abraham is known not only as the friend of God but also as the father of faith, demonstrating the reality that ‘walking with God’ and the action of faith in our Christian lives is one and the same thing.

Faith is what brings us to that place of being ‘put right with God’ but it’s faith, meshed with action, that really brings us into a full relationship with Him. The all-encompassing meaning of belief is intrinsically linked with the actions that back it up – seamless believing and doing. It’s not the doing that makes us right, but it’s impossible to show our faith, without the doing.

The apostle James, in his letter to the believers, tells them that separating belief from action is like separating a body from the life force or spirit within – all that’s left is a corpse. (James 2:18-26). As Eugene Peterson so aptly puts it, “Wisdom is not primarily knowing the truth, although it certainly includes that; it is skill in living. For, what good is a truth if we don’t know how to live it? What good is an intention if we can’t sustain it?“

It’s faith, coupled with action – believing and doing – that elevated Abraham from being not just a father of faith but also the friend of God – participant in a close and intimate relationship of knowing and being known.

The Psalmist also spoke of the comfort of knowing and being known – that God’s presence was always at his side.

“Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” | Psalm 23:4, NIV

‘Walking with God’ means simply that we are God’s people. We are intimately known by Him and He is known by us. This is a relationship where God’s presence is truly living with us and we are walking alongside Him, each and every day of our lives.

A Promise Of Reconciliation

This has always been the comforting promise from God to His people (Leviticus 26:12, Deuteronomy 10:12, 1 John 1:7), firstly to the nation of Israel and then flowing and expanding outward from Israel to include all of humanity in the new covenant:

“I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people.” | Leviticus 26:12, NLT

“I will make my home among them. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” | Ezekiel 37:27, NLT

“For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” | 2 Corinthians 6:16, ESV

Jesus was the exact representation of God and the very imprint of His nature (Hebrews 1:3, John 14:10-11), the Word-made-flesh who took up residence amongst us (John 1:1-14).

By knowing him, we could truly know God and the promise of reconciliation could be seen clearly for the first time; so close we could reach out and touch it. The morning of that resurrection, it was as if all the world waited, in breathless anticipation, for the moment when restored relationship became a reality and we could once again walk with God.

Through the blood of Jesus, the painful separation between us and the One who loves us best, has been healed. The ravine of sin has been bridged and we who were once far off from God, are brought close again, in perfect, harmonious relationship.

A Life Alongside God

Walking with God is sometimes equated to simply ‘living a moral life’, but I believe this misses the point.

Firstly, there’s nothing simple about living a perfect, moral life. And while the Christian life is certainly about trying to do the right thing, we will actually never achieve a morally acceptable life. Only Jesus achieved that and it’s only through his victory that we are conquerors, but certainly not through our own efforts. Walking with God isn’t about achieving perfection, not at the core of it all.

Walking with God is about a life spent alongside God and, as a result of that choice, producing the kind of faith that is real and pleasing to God. It’s about relationship; a decision of the heart to choose the way that God is walking, not our own, and to pursue that path with Him.

This is a faith that isn’t just a thought or a hope or a list of unemotive ‘do’s’ or ‘don’ts’ but forward motion in real communion with God, as a Father and as a Friend. “Walking with God’ is deeply connected to the idea of having living faith – that is, faith expressed through action, not merely subscribing to a set of beliefs. It’s living in the delicately balanced tension between faith and works and ensuring that the things we’re convicted of find real demonstration in our conduct.

Corinthians confirms that walking with God is by faith (2 Corinthians 5:7) but this is faith demonstrated not just in saying what we believe but doing what we say we believe.

It isn’t an intellectual exercise – knowing things about God – but a choice of the heart, intimately knowing God, His character, His will, His greatness and majesty, and then choosing humbly to walk alongside Him every moment of our lives. We’ll get it wrong more often than we’ll get it right, but we have faith that ‘the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin’ and we have confidence that his sacrifice enables us to draw close to God and choose relationship again with Him. This is where conviction and conduct meet in glorious union and we are truly ‘walking with God’.

“We don’t believe something by merely saying we believe it, or even when we believe that we believe it. We believe something when we act as if it were true.” | Dallas Willard (1935 – 2013)

“It’s possible for a man to spend so much mental energy in discussing and rediscussing the simple element of truth that he never puts what has learned into practical effect, and this is probably why some people have drawn a fictitious distinction between matters of morality and what have been called ‘mere questions of doctrine’. Sound doctrine is the foundation of sound morality and right action is simply right doctrine in practice. By putting on the whole armour of God, we must have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Our shoes are in use every step of the way. We are not always using the sword of the Spirit to the throwing down of fleshly strongholds; but we are always walking, whether in war or peace, whether surrounded by the wicked and assailed by fiery darts, or in the assembly of the saints and hearing words of cheer. Our ‘walk in life’ covers all this experience.” | Islip Collyer, Conviction and Conduct (page 97, 106)

On Earth As In Heaven

Awareness of and responding to the love of God is at the heart of our Christian lives. We are who we are, first and foremost, because of God revealed in Christ. Because of Jesus, sin has been defeated and death no longer has the final word. “There’s nothing more to separate us from the promise, the words of a living hope.” (This, My Soul | The Gray Havens)

The truth is that ‘walking with God’, that beautiful, expansive, all-enveloping phrase, is what draws us back into the light, where we can stand naked and unashamed in the glow of God’s glory. Choosing to walk with God, in a repaired relationship through Jesus, returns us to that garden, to the place where everything was ‘very good’ and where every heartbeat of our life echos to the will and glory of our Creator.

“How great the chasm that lay between us, how high the mountain I could not climb. In desperation, I turned to heaven and spoke Your name into the night. Then through the darkness, Your loving-kindness tore through the shadows of my soul. The work is finished, the end is written, Jesus Christ, my living hope.” | Jesus Christ, My Living Hope, Bethel Music

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Two worship songs, in particular, were the inspiration behind this article. The first, ‘Your Glory’ by All Sons & Daughters, is a beautiful reminder of the purpose for which we were created and to which we’re all called. The second, ‘This My Soul’ by The Gray Havens is a compelling retelling of the story in the beginning: the perfect peace of Eden, disrupted by sin, but promised rescue, redemption, and restoration, at great personal cost, by the Creator Himself.