Mostly Empty Space
Colossians 2:17
These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
So very often my golf ball ends up surrounded by trees, leaving me with an impossible shot through a web of branches and leaves. My golfing buddies and I will joke: “Trees are 99% air, so go ahead and swing away. It’ll probably just go through.” Well, it rarely does.
It’s hard to wrap my brain around it, but the indisputable truth is that everything around us is almost entirely empty space. This couch, this computer, this cup of coffee….almost entirely empty space. To be specific, I just read that a hydrogen atom is about 99.9999999999996% empty space!
This world feels solid and looks solid. I treat it as solid when I sit down put my full weight on it.
BUT IT’S NOT SOLID!
Taking it to the next level, I demand that this world (things, people, words, accomplishments) also hold the weight of my heart, my soul, my identity, my value, my hope. And I get so frustrated, anxious, angry and sad when it doesn’t. But why am I so surprised? It’s almost entirely empty space! It absolutely cannot hold the weight of my being, even though it appears that it can.
The glorious gospel good news is that this emptiness is utterly temporary.
Revelation 21:5
And he who was seated on the throne said,
“Behold, I am making all things new.”
Do you know why Jesus was able to walk through walls after his resurrection (John 20:19)? It’s because the wall was almost entirely empty space but Jesus, in his glorified body, was 100% solid! This creation no longer had a hold and restriction on him. When there is light shining through our windows we can see particles of dust floating in the air, but we have no problem walking through these dust particles because they have zero restrictions on our more-solid bodies. And so it is with the new glorified creation. After Jesus paid our ransom on the cross and in the grave, he rose in his new body, inviting us to join him as he promises to give us new glorified fully solid bodies. They will be similar to the old, but 99.9999999999996% more real!
So rejoice and hopeful in this: this world, this creation, these relationships, this love…they are 0.0000000000004% of how solid they WILL BE. Enjoy this time, this world this creation, but cast your hope, weight and being onto the resurrected Jesus this is already made solid as he faithfully promised to enjoin us to himself.