Week 15: Day 2

Intro: Hello and welcome back to Orbit: a short reflection to help you put God at the centre of your life, from the team behind Satellites - I'm Sam Donaghey and I’ll be leading us through our reading of Colossians 1. We’ll take some time to read the passage, give space for the Holy Spirit to speak to us, and then have a practical task to make this a reality in your life today.

Bible: Today’s reading comes from Colossians 1:15-17:

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Thoughts: Image – such a loaded word. In an age of TikTok trends, millionaire social media influencers, a world that is structured upon likes and followers – perfect image is key, lucrative, and a gateway to becoming famous. What kind of pressure do you feel to have the ‘on trend’ image? That might not just be clothes, but could be the right humour, the right opinion, the right cause, the right phone, the correct enemies.

Back in the day, when this passage was written, an ‘image’ was the representation of a King or Emperor’s authority in an area, region, or nation. This image – either people or statues – embodied the very authority and the nature of the King. When Paul is writing that the son – Jesus – is the ‘image of the invisible God, he is writing with the awareness that the first hearers of this, back in the day, knew that he meant that Jesus was the perfect and correct representation of God’s authority and nature. Not only as a representation, but as God Himself.

And who was this image? Who was Jesus? Well, in Isaiah 53, he is prophesied as having ‘no beauty or majesty to attract us to him’. In fact, in his life, he was just a carpenter who came from a backwater town, that nothing was expected of – check out Luke 4. Jesus was nothing special in terms of human standards. Yet, he is the most significant person: He is the Son of God, made human. This Jesus we love and follow and give ourselves to be formed in the likeness of, is the perfect revelation, the full realisation of God’s character and nature. God didn’t choose the popular, he didn’t choose the person who seemed the holiest, he didn’t choose the rich, or the popular. He chose to make himself a human being, who ate a lot, who worked quietly in a shed with his dad, who wasn’t married – which was a massive social embarrassment in that day.

I’ve heard it said that Jesus isn’t like God; God is like Jesus. Therefore, if Jesus said or did it or lived it, that’s who God is. Bill Johnson of Bethel Church has said, ‘Jesus is perfect theology’. And it is the Son of God that all things hold together – King Jesus. King Jesus the carpenter. King Jesus the ordinary looking fella. King Jesus the one who no one paid attention to. Jesus the one who wasn’t smart enough to go to Rabbi school. Jesus the one who wasn’t married and would have been seen as a bit of an oddball because of that. Yet, He shows us God’s heart to give those who seem foolish in the eyes of the world, the fullness of Himself.

You might feel foolish, odd, put down, unlikable, uncared for. Add to that list as you wish. Yet, Jesus – in his very being and life – is a promise from Father, Holy Spirit, and the Son himself that you are special because you are his. You are joined with him, and all that He has is now yours cause you have given your yes to him.

Do not judge your life by the standards of this world: judge your life by the ordinary Jesus, who is the extraordinary Son of God, in whom ALL of the vast creation dwell.

Prayer: Let’s pray: Son of God, thank you for becoming human. Thank you for taking on human flesh, for teaching us and making it possible for us to become truly human. May we never lose the wonder of who you are, may we never lose the truth that the ordinariness of life, the ordinary people of life, can carry the extraordinariness of God. Amen

Challenge: Practical challenge time! If Jesus holds all things together, and all things are in him, then the ordinariness and the mundane nature of life is an opportunity for a God-moment, a moment with him. Take time today during the boring, the ordinary, the mundane nature of your day: waiting in your lunch queue, going to the toilet, waiting for the bus – whatever it may be, to pause and thank God that he will meet you there and ask him. How do you want my ordinariness to display your nature and character? Take note on your phone or a piece of paper of what he might say, but also be aware that of opportunities to bless the folk around you, but to also receive God’s blessing of a smile from a stranger or the beauty of a cloud formation. He is declaring His glory through you, and through others and all creation to you. Lift your head, open your mind, and take note.

Outro: Thanks for listening to Orbit today – have a great day!