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Blend the harsh lines

When we are first learning to color, we are instructed to stay in the lines.  I was great at coloring.  My lines were sharp and controlled.  In fact, in the 5th grade I received a reward for great penmanship.  I’m not even sure they give those kinds of rewards anymore.  But as I matured, so did life.  And life required a more blended approach.  It was acceptable to blur the lines, to smudge the sharp edges to make beautiful pieces of art.  


It is a type of “coming of age.”  You have to first learn the skill of control and staying in the lines, before you can learn the skill of blending.  And learn it quickly we must, because life is messy.  There is much tension right now, with keeping things separate.  Separate church and state; take God out of schools; keep God out of fast food (Chick Fil-A).  Wow, Really?!    And there are so many more references of this desperate attempt to separate, and to keep apart.  Segregation is a way of the past, folks, not the future.  It didn’t work then, and it won’t work now.  No wonder this world is going crazy, it’s trying to separate things that should be together.  Oh, the uproar if we tried to take peanut butter from jelly! Or hot sauce from fried chicken.  Or milk from cookies.  


God belongs here.  He is in our finances: “The Lord sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts.”(1 Samuel 2:7). He is in our politics: “He gives his king great victories; he shows unfailing kindness to his anointed.” (Psalm 18:50).  He is in our country: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance.” (Psalm 33:12).  He is in our hearts: “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” He is in our sustenance: “I am the bread of life.  He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:35).  He is in our family: “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”


The uncomfortableness that we feel when we try to go through life separating the things God has designed to be together, is self-inflicted.  I guarantee the more we blend the lines and allow every aspect of our world to be touched by the Most High God, we will be much better off. 


God is in everything, how could we ever seek to separate from our creator.  Consider this: “Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!  Who has known the mind of the Lord?  Or who has been his counselor?  Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?  For from him and through him and to him are all things.  To him be the glory forever! Amen.”  Romans 11:33.

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