Eastertide: Lord Over Every Square Inch and Every Tiny Detail

Painting by Annali Anderson

I set out at the beginning of the year to illustrate the significance of Scripture in our pursuit of God, and I would add, his pursuit of us. I have drawn from my experiences to demonstrate how God’s Spirit uses the truth of Scripture to teach, instruct, feed, and nourish us in our lives.

The writing process has reminded me in a profound way that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit actually and mysteriously pursues us and uses everything in our lives from the ordinary to the hell-bent to lead us into a growing, vibrant relationship with him.

Jesus Christ is King: Every Square Inch 

So, as we near the end of Eastertide, we acknowledge and celebrate the ascension of Christ that marks the end of his earthly ministry and the beginning of his comprehensive reign over all things. Isaiah’s hopeful description, penned long before the Incarnation, lends insight to the kind of revolutionary governing we can expect…

The government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be Wonderful Counselor; Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, he has established and upheld it with justice and righteousness (Isa 9:6–7)

The Father has also given Jesus a new name—a name above every other name and he has appointed him as head over all things—the heavens and the earth (Matt 28:18; Eph 1:22–23)

Wonderful Counselor; Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Jesus, after the resurrection and for forty days, presented himself alive to his disciples after his suffering and spoke to them about the kingdom of God. Then he was lifted up into heaven by a cloud to take his place at the right hand of God.

The significance of this remarkable, logic defying, visible departure, in part, resides in the fact that he ascended and because he ascended bodily—not as some kind of an apparition, not with smoke and mirrors, but as the risen Savior in the flesh. He is the living word through whom God speaks to us through the Spirit and the Scripture.

This Jesus, the writer of Hebrews proclaims, is heir of all things, the creator of the world, the radiance of God’s glory, the exact imprint of his nature. Our Savior who upholds all things by the word of his power made purification for sins. He now sits at the right had of the Majesty on high (Heb 1:1–3)

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Jesus Christ is Lord: Every Tiny Detail

We as human-beings learn about God’s rule and reign not on the outside of a grand, sweeping story but by encountering him inside of our lives, in the tiny details —at home, school, or work, in relationships that spark, grow, and fizzle, or amid well-planned trajectories, imposed or unmet expectations.

To follow, to know, to commune with our God who reigns is neither an intellectual journey nor simply an exercise in personal piety but is a living, interactive, and potentially ever-deepening companionship.

Sometimes, though, God appears to be distant and at times absent. He seems to ignore our cries or leave us hanging.

I have experienced this side of God a few times. Probably the most grounding experience—one that unfolded over the course of nearly twenty years—involved our longing for a child. I had always pictured a life that included raising children with Bob—any alternative honestly never occurred to me.

I remember on January 1, 1984 we agreed to start the process. Within the year almost all of our close friends were expecting their first child. We were not.

We moved to Texas a year later while still trying to get pregnant. Within weeks, I met a wonderful infertility specialist who, along with his wife and family, became the dearest of friends. I was certain that God moved us to Austin to provide for us this doctor. God put him there to solve whatever our problem might be. But after countless tests, drug regiments, and our very best efforts—he did not.

We moved to Russia six years later and in time considered the possibility of adopting a Russian orphan. I was all-in. Bob was unsure. I prayed in earnest, interviewed parents who had adopted children, sought counsel, and my confidence grew. Bob’s did not. I eventually wrote to a US adoption agency, three years in, with Bob’s almost-full-support. And within a few months we received a reply. The Russian government was restricting foreign adoptions. The door closed softly but definitively. Bob breathed a sigh of relief.

There is so much more to this story, but I share this, under the banner of the ascension, because it has been our infertility journey, perhaps more than any other, that has shaped and provoked a deep and active surrender to God’s lordship.

Along the way, as I studied Romans, God answered my simple but persistent question: Why?!

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
    or who has been his counselor?”
“Or who has given a gift to him
    that he might be repaid?”

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen

This passage in many ways, simply put, describes God’s comprehensive reign over every square inch and every tiny detail. Part of our life of faith is meant to solidify the fact that from him and to him are all things—a theme that flashes across the Scripture and anchors our faith. The Revolution begins to take root in our lives as we, all along the way, yield by faith to the rule and reign of Jesus the King.

What About You?

I do not know the circumstances before you today—amazing opportunities, unmet expectations, upheavel, unanswered prayer, deep disappointment—but I do know that the God who sits on the throne is involved in the tiny details of your life.

He is your Counselor—nobody knows you better.

He is your Father—whose love for you is immeasurable.

He is your Prince of Peace in a world of unrest. He hears your cries, he knows your longings.

He is the mighty God who invites you and me to worship him as Lord and to discover the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God.

To God be the glory.