Pastor's Message
May 2009
WHAT IS REAL?
“What is REAL?” asked the Velveteen Rabbit one day, when they were lying
side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room.
“Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle
like the mechanical toys?”
The Velveteen RabbitWhat is real?
What is real?
It seems to me that for the most part we define something as “real” based on its physical properties. “Real” is something that we can take in through our five senses. If we can’t see, feel, taste, touch, or smell something then we tend to say that it is not real. Yet, even a superficial examination of this definition shows us that it is completely inadequate. Emotions such as love, fear, or hate do not meet the criteria of coming to us through our five senses but I don’t believe there is anyone that would deny that they are real.
Easter confounds a definition of “real” even more. Easter is about a new definition of life. It is about life that is not confined by time and space. It is about life that defies the laws of the material and physical. It is about a life beyond the realm of the five senses. It’s about life as only faith can comprehend it. It is about a life that is real.
Thomas could only deal with the inadequate definition of real. “If I can’t see it and touch it, it can’t be real.” Scripture tell us that Jesus then appeared to Thomas. Yet, what was given to Thomas was something brand new. What was given to Thomas to see and to touch was not the same physical manifestation of Jesus that had died on the cross; it couldn’t be, for had it been, the laws of nature and decay would have been at work. No what was given to Thomas to see and to touch was life in a new way; life that was real, life that was the manifestation of God’s love.
That same REAL life is offered to us. It is up to each of us whether or not we will accept this new, this real life, and live in love or whether we will continue to search for life’s meaning in the material and physical.
“REAL” isn’t how you are made. REAL is what happens to you when you live in love.
God’s Peace
Pastor Bob