Harmony & Dissonance

    The earth as we know it was not God’s intended purpose. The story of the garden teaches us that God intended us to have a life spent hand-in-hand with Him and with creation. Life was intended to be a synchronized harmony. We see hints of this in the interconnectedness of the various lifeforms that make up complex ecosystems, and how easily those ecosystems are thrown off by just a small few of these symbiotic relationships being disrupted. We can see this at work in the constants that make our planet inhabitable, and we can see it in the order and consistency of creation as time goes on. Life exists through harmony.
    But a lot of what we experience is not this harmony. Much of our experience is discord. Health is harmony; cancer is discord. Love is harmony; murder is discord. Altruism is harmony; greed is discord. To walk with God is harmony; to walk alone is discord.
    The world we see is a chord struck in harmony and suddenly interrupted by the broken note of selfish man. The sweet melody is lost to our present reality, but its memory echoes in our souls. We long for love and wholeness and healing because we know in the depths of our being that these are the things we were created for. Death and brokenness and malice are so abhorring to us because they are foreign notes interjected into our favorite song. They don’t belong, and our souls know it.
    This is the beauty of the healing of God. When we see Jesus and the apostles heal, what we are seeing is the restoration of creation to God’s original design. People line the streets, embodied dissonance, notes devoid of a melody. Then the master composer rearranges them, puts them in order, and a song emerges from the chaotic clangs of broken refrain. And this is just a picture, a foretaste of what’s ahead: a new heaven and a new earth. Restored harmony.
    Heaven isn’t God’s escape plan, it is God’s reconstruction plan. He isn’t trying to get people out of the earth and into heaven, He is trying to heal the broken and turn earth into the new heaven. God isn’t trying to make an evacuation plan. He has made an invasion plan. He invaded our dissonance in Christ and has been at work ever since.

 

This thought came from a meditation first on Acts 5:14-16, then more broadly thinking about healing in the Bible. If Jesus healed, and empowered his disciples (and us) to heal, that must mean there’s something in the world we see that doesn’t line up with the world God intends. And because we were created by God, and something in us wants to live the way we were created to live, there is pain when there’s a disconnect between that innate desire for harmony and the reality of the broken world we live in.

I think it’s important to recognize the brokenness we live in. I also think it’s important to recognize that God designed us for more, has destined us for more, and sent Jesus so that we could experience more. Maybe you find yourself in a moment of harmony. Enjoy it. Recognize that others aren’t experiencing it. Help them. Maybe you find yourself in a moment of dissonance. Find hope in the fact that God’s plan is to restore you to the harmony he intended for you from the beginning of time, and no matter how long the sustain of dissonance, God will bring a resolve.

Acts 5:14-16

    Believers were added to the Lord in increasing numbers — crowds of both men and women. As a result, they would carry the sick out into the streets and lay them on cots and mats so that when Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them. In addition, a large group came together from the towns surrounding Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed.

Published by Kristofer Keyes

I am a married father of two children. My wife and I both work on staff at Faith Family Church in Canton, Ohio. It is my goal to inspire and encourage people to aim higher, reach farther, and understand the unique voice and ability we each have to bring hope and healing to the world around us.

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