Two views

I can’t stop staring at this picture. It’s the stunning image captured by Artemis II. The peace that is visible from a distance has me undone.

From this vantage point, it’s almost as if there is no war, no politics, no hatred, disease, or destruction. Somehow, looking at this picture, it’s easy to see that we are ONE. Humanity is all connected. Actually, scientifically speaking, all living things are connected. On a biological level, we share the same molecular machinery. Every living thing on Earth, from bacteria to blue whales, uses the same genetic code. Life doesn’t own matter… it borrows it and passes it on. In this sense, all life is one continuous metabolic process, reshuffling the same atoms. On many levels, we are ONE. But since that’s the end of my scientific knowledge, my mind drifts towards the Church. Of course, our scientific, physical connectedness is categorically different from the spiritual unity we are specifically and uniquely given in Christ — but the visual was helpful for me.

I have been gazing at the picture above side by side with this one:

This woman. I want to know who she is. Is this her home that has been destroyed? What is she looking for in the rubble? What has she lost? What was she doing when the bombs dropped?

The contrast from the macro to the micro point of view has been like a teeter-totter in my mind and heart for weeks.

In this passage from Ephesians 4:1–6 (emphasis added), I’m struck afresh by the word “preserve.”

“Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

We are being asked to preserve what already exists. To maintain the oneness that has been given to us in Christ. We are IN HIM, together… somehow beautifully ONE in Him.

Yes, I understand that we have a part to play, but there is a unity that already exists IN CHRIST, and I desperately need to connect to this reality, or I lose the plot. I am somehow already unified with millions of people all over the world, ones I will never meet. This is the living organism that is the spiritual Church. When I close my eyes, I sense this stunning, mystical, spiritual Body of Christ… the living organism that is already one in Christ Jesus. I can feel her in my bones. In her essence, she exists to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, and to reflect the image of Christ to a hurting world.

I know we are mostly messing this up. I have been lost in grief for weeks now, over how we have been doing quite the opposite of revealing the love of Christ. But remembering the view from space and holding onto its truth gives me the hope I need to sit in the rubble of our often destructive and tragic reality.

This is what it means to hold a prophetic hope. This is what it means to live into a oneness that one day will be fully revealed to us all, and not just mystically sensed.

To sit in the rubble with hope, we must remember the view from space.