[Image: Reaching Up, 2007, JAVanDevender, South Korea}
Job 32:8 (NKJV)
8 But there is a spirit in man, And the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding.
It's a bit unnerving when you first encounter it. Situated near the visitor center in the city park, it is set back from the walkways a bit and you encounter it suddenly, having rounded a corner. A hand... rising out of the ground... intricately sculpted and stark in the plain realism. I can't imagine anyone not pausing when they first see it. You don't just walk by.
The sculptor knew what he was doing I think. Not speaking Korean, I could not seek out one of the attendants and get a full background on who ever accomplished the work. I don't know the story from that angle but I can react to what I saw and I don't think that I am too far removed from what was intended.
As Elihu rightly stated to Job, there is a spirit in man: restless, wondering, striving, dissatisfied. Whether uneasily sitting around a nomadic campfire or staring disconsolately out his hotel window, there is a certain loneliness that colors our journey through this life.
I am not here speaking specifically or primarily about those exceptional cases.. about that deep, abnormal loneliness that can affect us at times, or in some cases single out individuals for special despair. I am mostly speaking about our "normal" life... when we don't have anything in particular that is weighing us down, when we have loved ones to brighten our relationships, when financial burdens are not particularly pressing. In other words, when we ought to be "happy." No, I mean those times when sitting there... quiet for a moment, there is that vague "it's not enough" sensibility that whispers at the edge of our consciousness. There is a stirring in our soul that reminds us that, as humans, we are not content to just exist, that there needs to be some sense of purpose that justifies our existence, that gives meaning and depth to experience, that fills that emptiness at the bottom of our soul.
This has always been represented in human history as "turning our eyes toward heaven" or as "reaching for the sky." In technical terms it is a longing for transcendence, to rise above the ordinary and to "touch the face of God."
There is a spirit in man... and the breath of God has given him understanding. Man is man because of that "special" aspect of his being. No matter how hard he tries to convince himself that God is just an evolutionary pit-stop, a mere contrivance of the mind, or some other such idolatrous escapist dead end, yet when he sits on his bed and gazes out that window, he realizes that the only alternative to God's existence is utter insignificance, and somehow, that spirit in us will simply not let us breathe in that atmosphere. So, our hearts and our hands reach out to the hidden God that lives somewhere "out there" and we long for fulfillment. Natural man will know that longing but will not give up his sin in order to find it. The born again man will know that longing, will also know what it means to have that longing addressed in Christ, and will yearn for complete fulfillment. Christ came to bring "heaven to earth." God knows the loneliness of our souls and has acted to fill it. He has not left man "alone" because He created man for fellowship with Him. Through the Holy Spirit we have the down-payment, the token, the taste, of that final, totally complete, consummation that is our ultimate union with the God who created us. We who know Christ are perhaps even more sensitive to the longing and, having tasted the sweetness of heaven, long for it even more.
Even in us, the spirit of man still reaches for the sky.
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