I often joke that there are two kinds of people in this world, those who put people into categories and those who don’t. I may joke that way, but I really do not like labels. On myself or anyone else for that matter. Sometimes labels are helpful. When you go to school it can be useful to know whether you are in the fifth or the sixth grade.
But most people do not precisely fit the labels they are assigned. For example, I may be placed in the sixth grade because of my age or when I started school or because I sufficiently passed the fifth grade or because my fifth grade teacher dreaded the thought of having me again. For whatever collection of reasons, I am in the sixth grade. But emotionally I may be a fifth grader and in math I may be an eighth grader and in reading I may be a sixth grader and physically I may fit more with the seventh graders. On it goes.
No individual fits any humanly-defined categories exactly for the very reason that no two individuals are alike. There’s an old joke that goes along the lines of “when God made so-and-so, He broke the mold.” Truth is, that applies to every single person that ever lived.
In three ways are we all alike. One, we were made in God’s likeness, Two, we have fallen from that likeness into what theologians call sin, meaning we have gotten off-centered in God and are operating out of a self-centeredness that is destructive both to ourselves and to all those with whom we come into contact. And three, even in that state of fallenness there is an insatiable hunger to know God.
Now some people teach that there are many paths to or back to God or that you don’t need to try to get “back to” God at all, either because He doesn’t exist or because it doesn’t matter. Others teach that there is only one way back to God and we better find it. At least to a certain extent, all these ideas are wrong. For one, they are all very human-centered as opposed to God-centered, meaning they are idolatrous. For another, they fail to take into consideration the sheer diversity with which God has created mankind.
I do believe, and this is one of the few absolutes I adhere to in life, that the way to God is through Jesus Christ. By this I mean, that because of our self-deception (our idolatry), God has chosen to reveal Himself and His love through His son, Jesus. But how He works in each of us to bring us to truth and life is as varied as the spectrum in which we were created by God.
I was just writing to a friend about the odd expression, “It’s not over till the fat lady sings.” The ring of truth in that awkward metaphorical mix of opera and sports echoes what Jesus taught. Don’t pull out the weeds until harvest time, he tells his agrarian-based audience, or you’ll mess up the wheat. On another occasion, he says, that while some of us plant and others water, God is responsible for producing the harvest, meaning that only in the end will it all be sorted out and by God alone.
People often ask, what about those who have never heard? What about the person who commits suicide? What about the infant who dies before reaching the age of accountability? What about my grandpa who died in a coma and we weren’t sure if he was saved? What about my dog? Will they make it to heaven? Best to do all we can in life to make sure we are ready and leave the rest to God. In the case of dogs, leave them all to God.
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