Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Greetings in the morning, dear people.

No rain on us while we did our WOG this morning. Now Becki is off to her Bible Study session at Country Meadows in Woodburn. I'm here trying to figure out how I’m going to meet all the urgent requirements of the day. But, it’s not major rocket science—I’ll just meet one at a time—and hope I can avoid too many people yelling at me.

One fact we’re trying to prepare for is the coming of our daughter Katherine and family tomorrow, all the way from Missouri.

Have a blessed day—even though it calls for some groaning. Biblical groaning helps us maintain Biblical priorities.

Love, Dad/Ray.

A wild scene is still etched in my memory—an experience of approximately 45 years ago. Some of the details are a little foggy, but the basics remain crystal clear. My brother and I decided to take advantage of an opportunity to do some skiing together surrounding a family gathering and selected the Hyak Ski Area on Snoqualmie Pass. We would then return to our parent’s place for a family dinner. Except for the large crowd and long lines before boarding the lift, everything was going fine—until things went very wrong. We had just boarded the lift and were about 150 yards up from the point of boarding when the chairlift stopped. No big surprise. That happens often. Then it started moving slowly in reverse. No big deal yet. That happens occasionally. But then it started picking up speed in reverse—faster and faster. A form of hell broke loose. We looked back to see horror—chairs with human occupants being whirled around the huge turnstile pulley then smashing back against one of the large stansions—some chairs being ripped off the cable—forming a pile of steel and bashed up bodies. Broken arms, broken legs, concussions, and bruises were the results. I witnessed the worst case of injury where a fellow was catapulted in an arc of about 30 feet high and a distance of about 60 feet, flung like a rag doll, landing in a pile. (He lived but sustained a broken back.) Both of us turned around as best we could to prepare for bailout, which we did. No way did we want to take that destructive ride around the turnstile pulley. The happy setting of laughter and fun was spontaneously transformed to shrieking alarm and misery.

That experience offers me a small window for imagining how things can quickly change when things go bad on a large scale. Most of us have been spared, during our lifetimes so far, the reality and ugliness of close-to-home war, and, like myself, lack a very real frame of reference for that kind of thing. Maybe that doesn’t really matter much, because, according to Biblical pronouncements, large-scale devastation from war and “natural” disaster is not a matter of IF, but WHEN. It will happen. Naïve optimism thinks it won’t. But the predictive handwriting on the wall of current events is glaring for many of us who view it all through the lens of a Biblical perspective. Here’s the deal: “While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:3). That’s a close parallel to the message Ezekiel was called upon to announce in his day concerning Israel’s impending judgment and disaster. God wanted them to be forewarned with dramatic illustration by instructing Ezekiel to groan, grieve, and agonize in advance of the pronouncement’s fulfillment. I believe we too are being called upon to groan. Please groan. We’re not dealing here with fairy tales.

Here is some relevant encouragement from our Brother Paul: “But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing” (1 Thessalonians 5:4-11).