Man is dirt progressing towards jewels. Fire enters the rock, and the result is a diamond. Eschatology is just another way of saying the work is in progress. Our beautification is on schedule.
Eden began with gold outside its walls. The gold was good, but it was outside. The final garden is itself covered in this gold. The garden has added a city to itself, and the goal of the Man is to give his beautified Woman fine wine.
We move. The shrubs have not yet grown in the beginning, but as we follow along God’s story, we see a sprout that grows into a vine and then a giant tree. We see a man that begins naked and ignorant. He gains wisdom, however illicitly, and then clothing. The next step is tools and weaponry, and we see that royalty is in view. Joseph’s multicolors inform the audience that he will be ruling the greatest kingdom in the land.
Christianity is a comedy, whereas all false religions are tragic. This means that Christianity moves. Christians smile and laugh, as we follow after the God who dances. Our God sings too, as the Word is enveloped in Breath. Breath is moving air, song: glorified speech. The Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus who pictures the Father.
To be like God is our telos, and so Man sings and dances. He stumbles at first and hits flat notes, but this is but the beginning. There’s 30,000 years to go after all. Infinity knows no ceiling, and thus we practice on. We sing about creation. We sing about the exodus. We glorify the Torah in the Psalms. And the Bible continues still.
From song we move to vision. Prophesy is strange indeed to the untrained, however, as we run through our stream of consciousness, we begin to see that Daniel’s visions are built upon prior history. Hosea reminds us of Ruth. The “horsemen” ride God’s chariots. Upon closer inspection still, we see that the Temple is alive!
When we move to the New Testament, we find that our suspicions are confirmed. Peter tells us that the Temple is indeed alive:
Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
And this isn’t some generalized “spiritual” temple. No. This is THE TEMPLE. This is the Spirit’s Temple. The House of the Living God.
And how did we know to watch for God’s Temple to come to life if not through an eye for beauty? We read his literature. We heard his song. We admired his painting. And after doing so we were able to worship the Living Temple when He dwelt among us.
We were created for beauty, and this why God did not stop with the male. The male is the alpha, like grain and water. But the woman is the omega. She is the risen bread and the wine. She is the perfection, and men everywhere took notice.
Growing up means wrestling through the strange new world of glory. It means moving from a fear of angels to a dominance over them. And how can we do this except by faith? God shows us the Apocalypse and says “It’s this Sunday.” We respond by saying “I don’t know how, but You’re gonna get us through this one.”
Just like He did last week .
And so we see why Nicodemus was expected to get it. We understand how Paul can speak in complex and sophisticated speech. We see why the Church Fathers composed works of art when they theologized. We understand polyphonic chant. One moves to Three and back.
And so we grow. We are awakened. We cannot simply “explain it.” We live it. Or perhaps it lives us.
Revolutions are but worldly imitations of the new wine that bursts our skins, and it is only because we have yet to trust in this cosmic ascent that the explosions of resentiment still hold us back. I suspect that once we’re old enough, we will understand our lifelong repentance. We will understand it as we laugh.
