Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Re-centering


An Inkling
To the casual observer of the sky it looks like everything orbits us.  The sun, moon, planets, and stars rise in the east and set in the west, with our earth apparently in the middle of things.
Ptolemy (2nd century, A.D.) was no casual observer.  He noticed that the planets did not move steadily like the stars, sun, and moon.  They got faster and slower, closer and farther.  So he came up with a theory for the planets’ motions that included little loops, which he called epicycles.  His theory didn’t explain every quirk of the sky’s motion, but with lots of figuring and a little fudging, it mostly worked. 
Fast forward thirteen centuries and another careful observer began to cipher.  His name was Copernicus, and his revolutionary proposal was that the sun is central.  Once that center was realized, the other pieces fell into place without the gyrations of epicycles.  Voila!  Suddenly the sky was so much simpler and sensible!
To the casual observer it looks like we are the center of things in life.  By the age of two we casual observers had already determined that all manner of reality orbits around us.  Along the way we may learn some polite ways to speak of such things, but we’re not naturally inclined to change our basic view of life:  “I am the center.”  Of course that theory of life requires lots of figuring and fudging, along with lots of creative epicycle-like explanations for life’s quirks.  And still it doesn’t add up.
Life is so much simpler once we realize that Another is at the center.  If you’ll forgive the well-worn pun:  it is the Son.  Once we are given to understand that He is central, all of life’s orbits and calculations and motions begin to fall into place – along with a huge sigh of relief that we don’t have to muster the gravitas to pull everything into orbit around us. 
It’s a great way to live, this Creator’s design for life.  May this spiritual Copernican revolution find full expression in each of us, and wide realization in all!
Blessings,
Keith