“You established the earth and it endures.
Your laws endure to this day, for all things serve you.” Psalm 119:90b-91-NIV

Tolerate

Traffic lights; long
lines; rude people; boring sermons; elevator music; gas prices; work.

Things we tolerate. Why do we tolerate these
things? I suppose it’s because we have to, right? If we want to get where we’re
going we must wait at those traffic lights; if we want to eat we must wait in
those long, slow lines at the grocery store. (Don’t you just love how they only
have one cashier to work when they
have fifteen registers?! Sigh…I digress). We have bills to pay so we tolerate
working all of our lives, but praise Jesus if you are blessed to have a job you
actually love! And what of those boring sermons? Well, your poor pastor can’t
bring down the fire every Sunday,
give him a break! It’s called reality.

The Bible mentions
tolerate a little differently. It calls it “enduring”. Psalm 119:90 says the
earth endures. Wait a minute, the earth is tolerating.
What is the earth tolerating exactly?

Come with me to an
open field on a grassy hilltop. The breeze is cool, the sun is shining. We see
tall flowers blowing against the bright blue sky line. Glorious. Gradually a
thud begins, then louder it comes until “clomp clomp clomp,” that gorgeous
yellow bloom blowing in the breeze has been snuffed out, cut short by the stomp
of muddy boots breaking through our scene in a hurry to get to the lake beyond
the hill.

Bummer.

Humans, we must be a
real treat to tolerate at times.

We are told there
will be a new heaven and a new earth one day (Revelation 21). Life as God
intended, in total perfection. Until then the earth endures (us, perhaps) and
it serves God under the laws he has given: laws of gravity and the laws of
motion. The seasons we are given come and go due to the motion of space, the
rotation of the moon and sun and the earth. It all works in harmony; all of
creation follows perfectly ordered laws laid out by the Creator. The smallest
of flowers bends its will to the sovereign God of the universe while man,
created in the image of God himself, often shakes his fist at the Creator and
questions and doubts at the very minimum.  It’s no wonder God doesn’t merely tolerate us!
But NO! That would go against his very nature of holiness! Instead God loves us
so much he not only gave us the biggest sacrifice of all in His son Jesus, but
he also threw the icing on the cake with giving us all of nature to marvel at
and enjoy!

If the earth and
nature itself endures and serves God willfully, we would do well to look on and
learn from the example given. Have you ever heard a flower complain as its
petals are picked off by a person humming “He loves me, he loves me not?” Have
you ever heard a rain drop whimper as it splatters across the windshield of a
racing car? Have you ever heard a blade of grass rage over getting trampled
under the foot of a workman’s boot?

Are we serving God
with our whole hearts or merely
tolerating his words as ideas in our lives?

He sees our true
heart.

Prayer

I praise you, Jesus. As my
Creator I am thankful for your generosity. You have given all of nature for my
pleasure and I often take it for granted. The next time I see your creations may
I be motivated to serve you with all my heart.