Cavs Celebration - Shared Victory and a Great Multitude

Lebron James said the past week has been surreal. I would agree. I am a lifelong Clevelander - I have lived other places in my life but of the 56 years I have lived on this earth (thus far), 45 have been in this great city. I also am a huge Cleveland sports fan. I was five years old the last time Cleveland won anything and I have no memory of that event. Like many others, I have lived through Red-Right 88, The Drive, The Fumble, The Shot, The Blown Save, and yes, The Decision. I began to question whether a championship was going to happen in my lifetime. Ohio State, while sweet covers the whole state and not just our little city.

That is why the victory Sunday night (only a week ago) and the parade on Tuesday were so extra special. Sunday night Deb and I went to Ohio City and watched the game at Market Garden Brewery. We knew win or lose we needed to experience this event with others of similar sports faith. After the improbable victory we went downtown and I must have high-fived a thousand people. It did not matter whether you were old or young, black or white, rich or poor, thin or fat, you celebrated that night. Then there was the parade. I rode my bike downtown because I wanted to; a) avoid the nightmare traffic, and b) get a better firsthand sense of the crowd. I have never seen that many people gathered to celebrate. Seeing over a million people celebrating in my little city brought tears to my eyes multiple times. The panoramic shot from my iPhone paints a picture.

My heart and head went to a place that maybe others haven't thought about. This is a small taste of the celebration in heaven. John says in Rev. 7:9 that a "great multitude from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages" will be celebrating God and the Lamb who is Jesus Christ. I even thought about King James and how this city embraced the returning superstar as a small taste of worship of the infallible, sacrificial King Jesus. Many people seem to have this impression of heaven as a boring place. Nothing can be further from the truth - the reality is it is a giant party.

It is also a giant party with purpose. There are lots of passages that describe heaven as a place of joy and purpose. As I was standing in the parade, I had lots of joy but no real purpose other than to yell a lot. God in heaven will not only provide incredible joy, but there will be function as well. Sunday night I heard a lot of people saying "We did it". Well last I checked, none of us even picked up a basketball. We identified with the Cavaliers because they represented Cleveland. We also represent Christ who paid the ultimate sacrifice on the cross for our sins. In fact the word Christian means "little Christs". The sacrifice ushered in responsibility - responsibility in this world and the one to come. Only God could provide true joy and ultimate purpose.

The Wonders of Life

In my blog post last week, I reflected on the cicadas and the wonders of observing this phenomena. I think many of us take for granted those things that happen routinely but are anything but routine. Several weeks ago, we were flying to Florida and the man in the seat behind me of nearly 50 years old commented that he had never flown before.

He was so excited that he asked the people on either side of him to take pictures out the window. He was also hyper-ventilating as we took off and gasping as we landed. About 30 minutes in the flight, he hit the call button and asked the flight attendant if she could "take his order". He did not understand the routine of airplane service. About a few hours in, I got up to stretch (I do this routinely in flight because I have had a blood clot and my hamstrings also are very tight). He asked me if it was ok to stand in the aisle like that.

I reflected on what this man was experiencing. Since when does flying 600 mph in a metal tube with a hundred of our closest friends become normal? My brother-in-law is a pilot and even he is routinely awed by what the world looks like from 10,000 to 30,000 feet in the air.

We were at a wedding last night and a friend of our daughter brought her seven week old baby to the wedding. Looking at a new born baby should fill us with wonder. In the movie Rocky (Rocky II that is), Rocky says to Adrian when their baby is born "I can't believe you did this". Rocky has wonder but it is misplaced. God is the author of this complicated human organism and uses people as the means.

Do we approach life with a sense of wonder?  Or with a sense of routine? There are so many daily routine, ho-hum things that we see that reflect the wonder of who God is. Even giving ourselves credit for the wonders of technology should be directed not from the inventor but to the ultimate creator God who fashions the complex into the seemingly ordinary.

Cicada Lessons

We are at the tail end (no pun intended) of the cicada invasion. These little buggers depending on where you live in NE Ohio are everywhere. There is a neighborhood by where I work where they are particularly prominent. I learned a whole lot about cicadas reading up on them on websides like cicadamania.com.

 When we look at things in nature like cicadas, we can have one of several reactions. We can say to ourselves, "so what" and just move on with our lives. At the opposite end of the spectrum, we can marvel at these things and think they are the end in and of themselves. Or we can admire and draw from the great Creator God who fashions an unbelievable and complex world. In many cases, cicadas and much of nature serves to remind us of what life is like, especially in perspective to eternity. For example:

1. Cicadas remind us of the cycle of life. Cicadas have a very predictable life cycle much like the seasons that should remind us of life and death as matters of course in this life post the fall.
2. Cicadas remind us of the brevity of life. Cicadas have a short life span and their life span as adults outside the ground is a mere 2-3 weeks.
3. Cicadas remind us of resurrection. They emerge from the ground just as God brings forth life out of the ground as part of the creation of man and the subsequent resurrection of all men whether to destruction or new life (heaven or hell).
4. Cicadas remind us of new birth. Cicadas emerge from the ground as nymphs and shed their exoskeleton skin for a new purpose. While unfortunately their life as adults is brief, ours in a resurrected body are created for eternity.
5. Cicadas remind us of courtship (ok maybe this one is a stretch) - Cicadas actually sing to attract their mates. Males sing, females respond, mating begins, and the cycle of life begins again. Somehow the attractiveness of their mates is a natural course of life. I found on the cicadamania site a place where you can listen to all of their singing and noises.

I marvel at what God is doing in creation. I am sorry, but even when I was not a follower of Jesus, I never doubted in an orderly, complex creator. And when you look a little closer, you can experience and see much of what life is about.