BreakPoint WorldView » January 2009

Maybe you associate January with stowing Christmas decorations and prematurely breaking New Year’s resolutions. I’ve come to associate it with the Roman god, Janus, from whom we derive the month’s name. Often depicted on coins, Janus had two faces, one which looked back and one which looked forward. His visage marked doorways, and the Romans worshipped him at times of transition: births, marriages, and harvests. Janus was the pagan mind’s best imagining of someone who could see both past and future. Eternity etched on their hearts made them long for a deity who could transcend time.

Perhaps if Paul had addressed a Roman and not a Greek audience at Mars Hill, he would have used this god as his point of connection. Perhaps Paul would have proclaimed to them the truth of the Great I AM, worshipped by Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Perhaps he would have told them of how God had entered time through the form of His Son, Jesus Christ.

January is a month in which I’m comforted to know that I walk in relationship with this true past- and future-seeing God, the Great I AM. I’m also comforted to know as I look backward and as I look forward that the same God who parted the Red Sea for Moses is the same God who goes with me into the unknown year ahead.

Our God’s omniscience of past, present, and future is comforting in times of transition—times when a new president takes the oath of office and the face of Congress changes. Knowing the faithfulness of our unchanging God brings great comfort as great expectations wax and wane for a new president. It’s an even greater relief to realize as Chuck Colson points out in this month’s Viewpoint column that there is a leader who is coming who will satisfy the desires of all nations.

It’s also a great comfort to know that this God who transcends time cares enough about us that he pierced the fabric of time with the incarnation of His Son. He did not stop there—this same son, Jesus, was pierced for our transgressions. And through His incarnation, his crucifixion and His resurrection, God has also pierced the darkness.

Like the rending of the temple curtain, one day God will rend time itself. We will know that which we cannot yet comprehend—eternity. In the meantime, as I’ve pointed out in A Voice in Ramah, this present darkness is as real as our coming deliverance. We wage real battles. Our pain is deep. But the light is real also. And our responsibility to bear it is a weighty wonder.

Our timeless God made us to bear His image. He fashioned us to be like Him: people who desire to bring form to the chaos, to bring light from the darkness, to stand back and survey our work with the bubbling-over satisfaction of, “It is good.” How beautiful it is to participate in new creation with God. And how encouraging it is to see in this issue two stunning examples of what this looks like today. In “Spraying the Message,” Zoe Sandvig explores how Brian Bakke and Milton Coronado use their graffiti art to cover over canvases of chaos with messages of peace and hope. And we’re also privileged to share with you the insights of internationally acclaimed artist, Makoto Fujimura, from his new book, Refractions, available this February from NavPress. In the rubble of the twin towers, Makoto used his art to connect with other displaced artists. Through his work today, his canvases explore the contours of God’s grace in a world where most artists mock the divine.

It’s a New Year. Use this edition of BreakPoint Worldview magazine to take a look back, to take a look forward, and to remember in the process the character of our unchanging God. Use this issue to remember the time-transcending call our God places on our lives to shine for Him in the darkness. I hope your imagination will be kindled afresh with how you can bear the light this coming year. And I hope your heart will be comforted to know the God who holds time in His hands.

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, 'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown'. And he replied: "Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way."
('God Knows' by Miss Minnie Louise Haskins)

Catherine Larson is a senior writer and editor for BreakPoint. She is the editor of BreakPoint WorldView online magazine and The Point radio. Her first book, As We Forgive: Stories of Reconciliation from Rwanda will hit shelves in February.