The Shadow of Your Wings

I would not be the first person to admit to being numerically challenged. I’m a “word” person. My husband, on the other hand, relates to numbers well. He actually enjoys figuring, to the point of distraction - mine! He seems to delight in reminding me (or forgets that he has already done so multiple times) that the 2 x 6 I want him to purchase for a new project won’t actually be 2 inches by 6 inches because (he tells me) the measurements of a 2 by whatever is really 1¾ by whatever! OK! I get the point! You, dear man, just get the lumber!

So, he gleefully trucks off to Lowe’s and returns with a bedload of wood which he then begins to measure and remeasure in an attempt to create what I have in mind. “Now,” he tells me, “you know this won’t actually be 6 inches wide, but I can add a ¼ inch strip of furring to make it exact if you’d like.” “Sweetheart,” I reply, … well, you don’t really need to hear the rest of the conversation. You get the point.

A few hours later, everything measured to within an nth of perfection, scraps of paper with figures, fractions, and equations scribbled on them lay on my kitchen counter. He’s prepared to start the work early in the morning. But for now, it’s time to relax and watch his favorite Friday night fare - NUMB3RS. (Of course.) So I sit, numbly, through the show, glazing over when the lead character pulls out his sharpie and starts charting his many faceted equations to catch the bad guy (who I detected within the first 10 minutes of the program with no help from math at all! The dialogue tells you everything you need to know.)

But there is one equation even I can figure out. There seems to be an alarming trend these days to discount or reconfigure the Word - even to the point of subtracting the One who IS the Word. I’ve been charting the “conversation,” carefully measuring the “dialectic” dialogue. As a word “Christ” is being replaced by “the anointing” (which can be argued as the literal meaning of the word.) A vast number of churches have removed the cross from their steeples and altars. Too many sermons are based on the most recent “word” of a favored “prophetic voice,” or the just published writings of Author Soandso, with Scripture being factored in as little more than fractional - or that pesky remainder after the division is done. “Truth” becomes experiential, “the Way” debatable and “the Light” is no longer being reflected as it is refracted by the murky depths of our “understanding” (upon which we are warned not to lean.) Even the mathematically challenging concept of 3 in 1 loses its distinction as the egg is cracked open and scrambled.

Here’s the way I reckon it - Jesus is the sum total, and if He is removed from the equation we will never have the answer. To put an algebraic term a (b + c - d) + e (f ¸ g = h) ´ i = ¥ into words - Christ Jesus (the anointed One + the Word - sin) + the cross (death ¸ sacrifice = salvation) ´ faith = LIFE.

I’m no mathematician and my formulation may not be exactly correct, but I’m 100% sure that I’ve got the answer right. Let others do the math, I’ll count on the Word.