Malformed?

"But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?" (Romans 9:20)

I have been thinking this week about sin and its function in our lives; of how sin creates malformations within our souls.  Yes, we know the scripture which aptly tells us what sin does to us - it slays us.  So, I guess we could agree that Death is Sin's ultimate malformation? 

If I have read the biblical narrative correctly, the spiritual death of humanity occurred summarily, instantly, leaving the body with no other recourse; the Tree of Life banned, and for good reason, for then we would have become the eternally-perpetually living dead.

Why is this so significant?  Our spirits deadened to what once beat as a holy rhythm within our breasts long-long ago in Eden, are we shocked by the decay of our souls? 

Is it not the great denial of the human condition?  Are we not striving against it continually? As the wear and tear shows up visibly in our bodies, we join the great sea-wave of humanity's relentless push to have slimmer bodies, younger faces, and strive to arrange our worlds to achieve long, satisfied lives. (Whatever that means.) Some of us put off the inevitable as long as possible, though, sometimes, we give up and in resignation plod out the remainder of our days, wondering if we were ever meant to dream at all, or meant to feel beauty or if we are just plain silly.  School girl stuff, really.  Let it rest, after all, we're grown now.

And our souls pant in the desert.  The river, dry in drought, the loveliness of a beautiful creation faded, choked by untimely death - leaves deep fissures in the landscape.  And the sun sets while shadows fill up the emptiness.

I am wondering how such malformations induce us to behave toward one another.

I have lived and loved long enough to know what occurs when we fail to delight first in God (as did Eve), allowing His divine order to invade our disordered lives.  And this is what I have beheld:  As a matter of course, we hurt one another. 

It makes me physically feel ill when contemplating it.  It cuts so close to the core of sorrow of a disordered world - and life.  But it's simply what occurs when we, a people whose very souls and beings were created for worship of a good and holy God walk in the death and decay of a fallen inheritance.  When we fail to be the people we were created to be, in the first place.

He knows this about us - oh, how he knows and how he loves us.  We were not meant to live disordered lives; the sort that ignores "no other Gods before me" and flaunts every blessing as if it were something it were not (i.e., the thing itself we most desire - who is God).  And, so, we cause more harm still.  In contrast, to it all, He - Jesus Christ, the eternal, magnificent One, redeems and he restores.

Have we beheld him closely? Can we?

A few years ago I read a wonderful book by Stasi Eldredge of Ransomed Heart Ministries in which she talks about beauty -- a beauty restored.  I've discovered that in our heart of hearts, where silent desires dwell and thoughts and feelings go for refuge, there dwells a fountain.  It's there where the Savior meets us - at the well.  Have you gone there lately?  If you have, then you will know that redemption and restoration (in our disordered souls and among our relationships) still flows through the wastelands, by grace, imbued deeply with the throbbing pulses of life. 

A Beauty restored.