Thoughts and Writings from the furnace by Kent Weathersby

Let there be light

The Earth was formless, empty and dark. That is until God spoke. What an unspeakable truth- that our God can, did, and does speak His thoughts and will into reality. What would it have taken humans to do to build an Airbus A-320 from an idea.

They would have had to wait from 1896 when Samuel Langley first flew a steam powered aircraft, without a passenger and on till 1903 when the Wright brothers flew a 12 second powered flight at Kitty Hawk, NC; not far from where I grew up. The Wright brothers enforced their patents with an “iron fist” preventing Glen Curtis from employing the wright brothers innovative use of ailerons for turning.

We would have had to wait 92 years until aeronautical engineering, computer technology, and jet propulsion physics evolved sufficiently to build an A-320. It is unfathomable that our God could have spoken an Airbus into existence and hung it in the heavens between LAX and JFK at any time since the darkness took form at His word.

Here is something to consider: since we are all created in His image, we possess, the powers of creativity, imagination, intellect, communication, and the myriad functions that make us people.

It might be a stretch but I suggest that, being made in His image, we too can speak ideas into reality just as He did “in the beginning.” Consider this ‒ If a man, for the sake of conversation, found himself in a troubled and faltering marriage woke up one morning and over coffee asked himself “is my wife glad she married me?” And, what if the answer was “I don’t know.” And if that stark answer provoked him to pledge himself, without regard for what he may receive or endure, to do everything possible every single day to make his wife glad she had married him.

He could speak his broken marriage into a blissful and joyous union driven by his character and not by the up and down, in and out of emotions ‒

“I’ve got about 45 minutes on my hands, what can I do to help you out?”

“Those beautiful feet look a little chaffed and dry. I picked up some foot balm at the drugstore while picking up a prescription; let me give you a nice foot-rub”.

“Great meal- let me clear the table and clean-up the kitchen while you find us something to watch on TV.”

“Look what came in from Amazon today- a professional grade massage table.”

You get the idea- none of us want to wind up being a mistake in someone else’s life. We are all responders, even God responds to our delight in Him by granting us the desires of our hearts. Without expectations, its highly likely that that man will reap a reward he never thought possible.

But, there’s a catch ‒ as trust replaces defensiveness and encouragement replaces grievance, the renovated union is vulnerable. It is at this juncture that the loudest words are those unspoken. If either were to bring-up offenses from a time long since passed, even just to make conversation, the heart of the disarmed offender might retreat to safety. Not intentionally, but automatically such as one falling down a flight of stairs into a heap of self-preservation.

When we are insulted, our ego is spring-loaded to retaliate with escalating rancor.

If we are hurt by the words spoken in darkness by another, often a trusted friend, we are drawn to social media to extract and eye or a tooth.

If we suffer the pain of having our child, or children, criticized by another, it would seem appropriate to react with a pernicious out-burst. Leaving a once treasured friendship in the dust and casting us into the long shadow of regret. But is it?

“When He was insulted, He insulted not in return. When He suffered, He did not threaten but entrusted Himself to Him who judges fairly” The Sound of Silence.

Kent