Ten Commandments Alive!

After I read Oklahoma’s Supreme Court decision to remove the Ten Commandments from its capitol, my gut hurt. It reminded me of a movie I watched about a similar issue with the Cross being on public property. The town’s people ended up buying the property where the Cross stood and the Cross stayed put. So I figured, maybe somebody can just move the Ten Commandments to private property.

Then I thought who would want a six foot granite monument of the Ten Commandments in their front yard? If I stuck it in my yard, there’d be someone or many who’d recall, with fervor (because fervor is the tone we humans like to use when we speak judgment against others), a time when I broke one or more of its commandments. They’d call me a hypocrite. I’d have to post the Cross in front of it. Some people might still call me a hypocrite.

But since I believe Christ died for my sins and my sins are forgiven, that I am no longer condemned, let’s say I boldly plant the monuments in my yard, child of the King that I am. Being that I live beside a gas station, people would see the monuments every time they drove past my yard to get gas. Now imagine if everyone posted the Ten Commandments and the Cross in their yard. How long would it take for the monuments to become as invisible as the hundreds of beautiful orange daylilies we forget to notice along the highways?

And then I thought, does Jesus command us to write His laws on our lawns or in our hearts? How much more would it mean to people we meet every day to see, to hear, to be able to touch the warmth from and experience Jesus living and breathing in us than to see stone monuments stuck in yards with grass growing up around them, because you know how hard they’d be to weed around.

How about if we write this one into our hearts? Jesus says in John 13:34-35:  A new command I give you:  love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

I am so thankful God’s Word doesn’t stand still long enough to need a weed eater. John 1:14: The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.  

Flesh. Not a monument. When we read the news and the world seems to be growing darker, let’s remember God is still the authority over all authorities, and His Light can’t be put out. We can be like the moon that reflects the sun, but remember it doesn’t show up as well when it’s light outside. Let’s be encouraged to reflect the Son as the world dims, to live the Word by loving one another, to do for others what a stone can’t.

Published also on Wordpress.com

Laurinda Krotish 7/6/15