Things Fall Apart

In Him all things hold together. Colossians 1:17b (NIV)

Did you ever notice the rise and fall pattern of the world? Everything comes in cycles, in seasons. Fall, winter, spring and summer all have their turn. People are born, then they die. Businesses prosper and fail. Governments liberate, then dominate. Cultures are developed, then start to disappear, taking whole peoples, languages and ways of life with them. Ecclesiastes 3 notes that there is a time for everything, even for love and hate.

Our lives tend to reflect this pattern as well. From the rise and fall of our lungs breathing, to the stages of life, the turns we take when we are children, then when we get to be adults: everything cycles. Families grow up together and then grow apart. I am amazed at how some families stick together for generations, where great-aunts and -uncles know their great-niece and -nephew's children well. I am equally stunned by how little some parents barely know, if at all, their adult children. Sometimes families that live thousands of miles away from each other remain closer than those whose houses just span a few minutes drive. Things just fall apart.

Christ, who is the "him" referenced in the Colossians verse above, changes that cycle. In a beautiful portion of scripture (Colossians 1:15-23), Paul outlines the character of Jesus. This verse in particular strikes me. The cycles of life, of earth, of humanity all continue to swirl around us. No one can escape that. But at the eye of this human hurricane we find Jesus. The calm center in the maelstrom of life is our center, our Savior, our Christ. We find Him patiently waiting for us, allowing us to pursue Him. We find Him perfect and without blemish, spotless and without flaw. We find Him waiting to help us rise above the tempestuous life we find in our natural human world, waiting for our seeking hearts to grow weary enough to turn to the one who can stop the spinning. For in stopping the spinning, turbulent way, all things fall away, not apart. But the center remains. Christ remains. Our relationship with Him does not fall away. Our relationship, in the end, is all we have. The Savior saves us, when nothing else makes sense. When all of life spins out of control, what is left? Then Center, Jesus.

Remember what holds your life together. It is not what you make or do that holds it together. The center that holds it all is Jesus.

God, I want to be more like Jesus, who humbled Himself to become obedient to You. Remind me who is at the center of my life and enable me to become more like Your Son. Amen.

Nikki Hamsher