It's amazing to me how much man glorifies man.
Don't worry, I'm sitting here raising my hand in affirmation that I too, do the same.
While I was in Ethiopia they lost prime minister Meles Zenawi. I drove in a car with a grown man in tears over this loss. Then sat in a living room with tears running down my face during the funeral for the sorrow this country felt. The abandonment and the feeling of, "what now?". The feeling of fear that their country will go back to a time of violence and despair.
Then today I sat in my living room (coffee in hand and dog laying at my feet) watching a country and a church watch Pope Benedict XVI do something no Pope has done in 600 years, leave his post. I listened to the news anchors and people interviewed and both marveled in their ability to come together as a country with love for one man, and felt a heavy burden on my heart that they put so much faith in him.
One man said that they are feeling as though they are orphans now. Abandoned and alone. Another made a comment about where their hope should be found now that a saint is gone and no ordinary man can be a saint.
It's amazing to me that both these things come up this morning after a night last night of teaching through Ephesians. A night of remembering the words of Paul when he writes in verse 18 of chapter 1:
I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.
I thank God that I know who to put my faith in. That I know my identity and who to turn to in times of feeling abandoned and alone. That I am a Saint. I am a rich and glorious inheritance because I am His. He chose me and is with me. He is sovereign over all and never failing.
I pray for the people of Italy and in the Catholic church. That during this time they may come in to contact with someone who will teach them what they've been missing. That man can only do so much. But God is eternal and omnipresent. That they are Saints and loved so much more than they could ever imagine.
