Innocence & Awe - Elisha's Riddle

Babies enter the world awestruck at the wonder of existence. If they could communicate with us the moment after birth, they might say, “Wow! I exist! I don’t know what that even means!! Everything is NEW!!!” The first weeks, months and years are filled with the absolute joy of wide-eyed discovery, sparking exuberant delight over the simplest things.

Over time however, most children, as they move towards adulthood, gradually lose this inherent sense of innocence and awe as they struggle to find their meaning, to discover their place in the grand scheme of things. Most often, the weight of responsibility and heavy pressure to conform to cultural expectations cause us to see “childlikeness” as an immature and negative trait. We gradually lose our ability to be awestruck by the simple things of life, to be fully present to “existence” – ours, others, and the creation that we call ‘home’. Many of us may have lost this sense of awestruck innocence, but it is quite present deep within, buried under layers and layers of cultural indoctrination, trauma and pain, and unmet expectations . . . awaiting an awakening.

There was a man who graced our world for a time, among the most “childlike” adults in history, an Innocent One who grew through all of the stages of human existence, yet retained all that we recognize as beautiful in children. He matured (physically, mentally, spiritually, socially) without letting responsibility, culture, stereotypes, expectations, or perceptions ever change His original state of innocence. Nothing kept Him from being fully aware, fully present, fully Himself, in every situation.

Radical Trust	Able to rest wholly and completely in his shared relationship with His Daddy
Relentless Curiosity	Sustained awe/delight in circumstances and people and creation; filled with possibility
Rich Relationships	No labels on people other than what was True; only interacted with them according to their True Identity
Ridiculous Freedom	Able to fully, confidently express Himself in any situation without care of what others perceived or expected; not bound to existing rules of time management or societal norms

The Ancients referred to 3 pillars upon which society rests – Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. For centuries, our faith traditions have focused almost exclusively on Truth (apologetics) and Goodness (ethics, morality), almost to the complete exclusion of Beauty (aesthetics). But Beauty alone, it seems, carries that strange power to transport us back to that place of childlike wonder, a stealth entry to the deep recesses of the human heart – able to bypass normal barriers of logic, reason, and religious bias that have been built up over years of responsibility, safety, security, and cynicism. Abundant Life and Freedom belongs to those that can become as children . . . not just as an entry point for belief, but rather as a way of life rooted in the sacred mysteries. Our childlike hearts long to find ourselves caught up into a Huge, All-Encompassing Story . . . an Epic of such Beauty that it steals our breath away.

I hope to paint for you in the following series of articles a portrait of Christ as the Beautiful One into whose Epic, Eternal Story we are all included. . . and how this Story establishes the Identity of each and every one of us. But it will take the eyes and heart of a child to see it clearly.

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Brother Eugene Petersen frames it this way:

“It is significant, I think, that in the presence of a story, whether we are telling it or listening to it, we never have the feeling of being experts – there is too much we don’t yet know, too many possibilities available, too much mystery and glory. Even the most sophisticated of stories tends to bring out the childlike in us – expectant, wondering, responsive, delighted – which, of course, is why the story is the child’s favorite form of speech; why it is the Holy Spirit’s dominant form of revelation; and why we adults, who like to pose as experts and managers of life, so often prefer explanation and information.”¹

So . . . we all find ourselves in a story. Much has happened from birth until now! But to discover our place in the Grand Story, we’ll have to travel backwards in time. I had always assumed that maturity in my walk with God was mainly about steady forward movement, but as it turns out He wanted me to go backwards – way backwards – back before the very beginning.

So we’ll move forward in our journey by going backwards.

It’s the exploration of the SOURCE and SUBSTANCE behind the Story of Christ that has rocketed me to an unlikely location in scripture, a launching pad to a Reality that helps us see His Love (as demonstrated on the Cross) from an oft-overlooked perspective.

I’d like to invite you with me to Genesis 1, and use it as a gateway through which we might encounter the Pre-Creation Christ. This is where the Spirit has taken me over the past 3-4 years . . . The Garden scene in Genesis and the corresponding New Jerusalem “Garden” in Revelation, both seen vividly in Light of what we discover in the Story BEFORE the Story begins.

What is it that we can discover about Christ before the Story of Creation begins? We’ll need to take a trip through a Black Hole to find out…

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So . . . what can we discover about ourselves and the Story we’re in by traveling through a Black Hole? Do we even know what Black Holes are?!?

To set the stage, let’s describe the basics of these scientific marvels. The following text and pictures are taken from a study by researchers at the NCSA in cooperation with the University of Illinois.

Black holes are thought to form from stars or other massive objects, when they collapse from their own gravity to form an object whose density is infinite: in other words, a singularity. During most of a star’s lifetime, nuclear fusion in the core generates electromagnetic radiation, including photons, the particles of light. This radiation exerts an outward pressure that exactly balances the inward pull of gravity caused by the star’s mass.

As the nuclear fuel is exhausted, the outward forces of radiation diminish, allowing the gravitation to compress the star inward. The contraction of the core causes its temperature to rise and allows remaining nuclear material to be used as fuel. The star is saved from further collapse — but only for a while. Eventually, all possible nuclear fuel is used up and the core collapses. How far it collapses, into what kind of object, and at what rate, is determined by the star’s final mass and the remaining outward pressure that the burnt-up nuclear residue (largely iron) can muster. If the star is sufficiently massive or compressible, it may collapse to a black hole.²

At the center of a black hole lies the singularity, where matter is crushed to infinite density, the pull of gravity is infinitely strong, and spacetime has infinite curvature. Here it’s no longer meaningful to speak of space and time, much less spacetime. Jumbled up at the singularity, space and time cease to exist as we know them.

As an infalling object approaches the singularity, tidal forces acting on it approach infinity. All components of the object, including atoms and subatomic particles, are torn away from each other before striking the singularity. At the singularity itself, effects are unknown; a theory of quantum gravity is needed to accurately describe events near it. Regardless, as soon as an object passes within the hole’s event horizon, it is lost to the outside universe. An observer far from the hole simply sees the hole’s mass, charge, and angular momentum change to reflect the addition of the new object’s matter. After the event horizon all is unknown. Anything that passes this point cannot be retrieved to study.

*OK. Let me summarize and save you from mind-tilt as your eyes begin to glaze over.

A huge star in the sky, sometimes up to 100,000 times the mass of our own sun, implodes upon itself and ends up becoming a dot . . . able to fit (per se) on a teaspoon. This ends up creating a ginormous gravitational field from which nothing, not even light, can escape. Around this dot there’s a spherical boundary called the *event horizon. Basically, once anything crosses that boundary, it’s over. It’s headed into the Black Hole. We can fantasize about what happens inside, but mostly we’re making up stuff. We literally have no freaking idea. It’s a mystery, and it’s phenomenal.

Fearfully Fun Facts

Gravitational Pull and Energy Release: If you were to drop a small piece of candy into a black hole, the gravitational force is so strong it would generate the energy of an atomic bomb. If you were to detonate 1000 atomic bombs every second for over 13 billion years, you would still fall far short of the energy that’s released in the final moments when a single giant star collapses into a black hole.

Mass: The super black hole at the center of the nearby Andromeda galaxy weighs 100,000,000 times as much as the sun, or 333 trillion times the weight of earth.

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The world’s most brilliant scientists exploring this phenomena over many decades, using cutting edge technology, utilizing our most advanced quantum mechanics, general relativity, electromagnetic radiation and string theory . . . admit that on the other side we are confronted with astounding mystery. Even though research now shows that most large galaxies, including our own Milky Way, contain at its center a black hole that essentially is responsible for shaping the entire galaxy around it . . . it’s clear that these universe-bending marvels have generated more questions than answers. And this is magnificent! It creates in the world of science an intense desire to explore more, to learn, to discover.

So, what do black holes and singularities and complicated scientific theories have to do with absolutely anything related to the Eternal Story of God?

My premise is that God, just as He does in the scriptures, leaves us clues in His World that always draw us back to Him. At the end of any authentic (unbiased) scientific endeavor – whether through telescope or microscope – are the fingerprints of the Creator, identifying and declaring the Story of His Creation. He speaks to us ever so creatively . . . if we could just learn to listen . . . to be still, and Know that He is God.

And so we begin, aware that all clues we discover ultimately lead us to the Source. We will shortly find ourselves on the OTHER side of Creation’s “wormhole” . . . so just before we do that, let’s travel backwards in time to the edge of the Creation Moment.

In the Beginning, God . . .

Have you ever had a dream, where you sometimes ‘know’ things without understanding how or why? It’s like this now . . . as we are thrown backwards in time at a dizzying pace, we catch momentary glimpses of the entire span of human history, and somehow we are able to grasp and process with strange clarity how all of it has influenced our present lives and perspectives. We see that we’re products of all that has come before us, molding and shaping us into who we have become. In a crazy-short time, we find ourselves at the edge of the Creation Moment, just outside the event horizon that circles the Beginning. There’s an eerie silence as we skeeter towards the boundary and come to a tentative stop.

“In the Beginning, God (בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית אֱלֹהִ֑ים) created the heavens and the earth.”

– Genesis 1:1 –

Hint #1: The Hebrew word for God here – Elohim – carries with it a plural connotation in the original language.

As we pause to consider this opening statement in the book of Beginnings, we recognize the enormity of its declaration. As with all epic stories, the opening scenes introduce the main characters, context, and perhaps the central themes that will later unfold. In the first four words, we see a distinct beginning to this Story above all other stories, and most importantly we meet the Central Character. . . God Himself, Elohim (אֱלֹהִ֑ים) . . . the Uncreated. Before we attempt to frame the context and themes, let’s see what we might uncover about this One who existed “In the Beginning.”

God said, “Let Us [Father, Son, and Holy Spirit] make mankind (אָדָם) in Our image, after Our likeness . . .”

– Genesis 1:26 –

Hint #2 – We hear God speaking within an Already Existing Community before the Creation of man.

Is there something deeper implied here than just the humdrum line item in our church’s statement of faith about the Trinity? Is there more to discover here than simply a doctrinal understanding? After all, later in the Story we read this:

For in Him (Christ) the whole fullness of Deity (the Godhead) continues to dwell in bodily form [giving complete expression of the divine nature].

– Colossians 2:9 –

What is this Divine Nature that finds its “complete expression” in Christ? Whatever we find waiting for us on the other side of Creation’s Black Hole, it’s going to be more than simply science fiction. . .

We’re going to discover who we really are.