John 1:1 – 17
A little South African boy, born in Welkom in 1973, looked up at the night sky. And looking into the dark night, he marvelled at the myriad stars that shone through the darkness. He saw suns, he saw galaxies, he saw constellations. Filled with awe and wonder a dream was born within him – a dream to be among the stars – to share space with them. With time, the little boy grew and matured – he finished school and worked for a degree. He started a job and through hard work, great initiative and business acumen he become a very successful South African entrepreneur and wealthy. And through all the years, and through all the studies and work, and in all the success, his dream stayed the same – to be among the stars and share space with them. One day he found he could make his dream reality and after a year long rigorous and costly program in Russia, on the 25th April 2002, Mark Shuttleworth, climb into the Russian Soyuz TM-34 mission and launched into space to work on the International Space Station.
God had and has a dream – a heart desire that He will go to any length to bring into being. Paul writes in Ephesians and then in Colossians
God did what he had purposed, and made known to us the secret plan he had already decided to complete by means of Christ. This plan, which God will complete when the time is right, is to bring all creation together, everything in heaven and on earth, with Christ as head. All things are done according to God’s plan and decision; and God chose us to be his own people in union with Christ because of his own purpose, based on what he had decided from the very beginning. Eph 1:9-11
God wants to reconcile the whole of heaven and earth back to Himself – and if you believe in the possibility or probability of life beyond this planet or solar system, it includes all that life as well. To bring this dream into being God chooses to become human. Paul sums it up so well in his letter to the Philippians
He always had the nature of God, but he did not think that by force he should try to remain equal with God.
Instead of this, of his own free will he gave up all he had, and took the nature of a servant. He became like a human being and appeared in human likeness.
He was humble and walked the path of obedience all the way to death— his death on the cross.
For this reason God raised him to the highest place above and gave him the name that is greater than any other name.
And so, in honor of the name of Jesus all beings in heaven, on earth, and in the world below will fall on their knees,
and all will openly proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.Phil 2:6-11
This is what God did – these are the lengths God went to – to bring His dream into being – to reconcile the whole created order back to Himself.
We all have dreams. And our dreams exist on different levels. On one level we dream of where we one could be, of where we could go, of what we could have. On another level we dream of what we can achieve – for ourselves personally, in our work and careers and businesses – in our sport or community life. We dream of what our communities and work places can become. We dream on a deeper level of our relationship – of the type of relationship we could have with our spouses, or children or parents. On our deepest level we dream of who we can be – the type of person we can be.
It is a dream that is our most important dream, for from it comes the ability to bring into being all our other dreams. It is a dream that makes all our other possible. For all our dreams hinge on becoming the person who can bring our dreams into being, being empowered to be the person who can do what is necessary to make our dreams a living reality and an integral part of our lives. And so our deepest dream is of who we can become as people. It is a dream that is our most important dream, for from it comes the ability to bring into being all our other dreams. It is a dream that makes all our other possible and so it gives us something to live for – a reason to get up in the mornings. They give us something to strive towards – something to stretch us beyond where we are and what we would normally do.
All dreams are a holy commodity. The dream planted within us by God of the promised place where He would have us be, of the people He would have us be who would be a blessing to countless others, a people influencing the common good from the place He promised to deliver us into – this dream is holy, planted within us by a transcendent God. Treat those dreams of a promised place with respect. And remember, God never gives us a dream of a promised place without giving is the means to go there. Christmas Day – the celebrating of God becoming human to make His dream possible, speaks to us not only of what we need do to make possible our dreams – For God it was for to become human, to be born a human pay the price of humanities sin, and to rise from the dead to give people new, reconciled life with God.
And so, even talking of what God did to bring His dream into fruition also talks of great power. The power to humble Himself to become human. But by becoming human God makes the same power available to us. And so Paul prays
I ask that your minds may be opened to see his light, so that you will know what is the hope to which he has called you, how rich are the wonderful blessings he promises his people, and how very great is his power at work in us who believe. This power working in us is the same as the mighty strength which he used when he raised Christ from death and seated him at his right side in the heavenly world. Eph 1:18-20
God did what it took to make His dream reality. And in doing so He unleashed the power within us to walk the roads of our deepest dreams. And so I want to just say – your dreams, your deepest dream about who you can become and be to make your dream a reality – it is a gift from God. God has placed it within you – it is holy. Don’t walk away from it. God did what to be done to bring His dream into being – do what you have to do to bring it into being. God became human and released the power for us to become the people were are to be, the people we dream of becoming so as to bring into being our dreams. Don’t give up on them – they are too precious to do so. And like God’s dream, they are too important to simply walk away from. And like God’s dream, who knows how they can enrich the lives of others being becoming reality.
philip howarth 