Our Upside Down World

This week, I feel like what I have to share is very odd, but I hope that I can communicate it in a way that you can understand and maybe ponder a little.

You all know, because I have said it approximately 435 times, but I am reading 1 John right now.  J  In fact, I went back to the beginning to work through it a second time with a friend and I have really been enjoying starting back over, sitting in the same short passages… but finding new things I missed the first time.  The Spirit does not waste time in the Word of God.

I promise, I will circle back to that, but first, I have to explain where this analogy first came from.  Back when I was reading through the Bible, I was sitting in the prophet books.  Specifically, I am talking about Isaiah (ch. 6), Ezekiel (ch. 1), and then finally Revelation (ch. 4), where each of the authors (Isaiah, Ezekiel, and John the Apostle) process these “throne room scene” experiences.  In these books there is a lot of “it was LIKE rainbows… it was LIKE glass... and I saw what was this creature with four heads that looked LIKE a…lion, eagle, bear… and a man.  Bizarre things, to the point that as someone who writes, I imagine asking the Lord “Okay, this is amazing, I would never want to un-see this, but how in the world do I describe these things to other human beings?!”  These men were writing by the leadership of the Spirit, they had what they needed to record incredible things for us, but when I read these accounts, the pictures in my mind still fall short of what it is actually going to BE (and I cannot wait!). 

There, hopefully that was a helpful lead in...  Now the analogy... 

I don’t know how many of you have watched “Stranger Things” on Netflix.  I only watched one season, and I can’t even say I would recommend it, but… here’s what I mean.

In Stranger Things, there are two dimensions, essentially.  One, is the above world, where human beings exist.  There are trees, color, light, LIFE.  

Underneath, there is the “upside down world” and this world is this dark shadowy “upside down” reflection of the world above.  The Upside Down World is blurry and dark, it swirls with shadowy hues of gray and black.  No color.  It’s cold, and lonely.  Underneath there are creatures of death.  

The few people who end up there (at least in season 1) die, or come close to it.  The only reason you go in is to RESCUE someone who is trapped there (another cool imagery… just sayin).  It’s ugly, and starkly contrasted with the human dimension.

It reminds me of what we are experiencing on earth.  I’m not even talking about Hell here.  I mean, right now, on this earth.  Maybe even the animals created here, the lion, the bear, the eagle, as it were, are simply “glory proclaiming pictures” of the creatures God has created to cry out “Holy, Holy, Holy!” for all of eternity.  

In the same way, 1 John 1:5 talks about God as the light, “God is light: in Him there is no darkness at all”.  In contrast with all of the terminology throughout the epistles, and specifically in 1 John, of sin and death being immediately related to darkness.  Darkness can’t stick around when light comes.  These are not equal.  Light rules over the darkness.  Always.  Ever been in a cave before?  Where they shut off the lights to show you how dark the cave is, and then shine their flashlight, or light a candle?  The darkness cannot be where light exists.  The darkness is pierced by light.

In the same way, what hit me today was that Jesus is not just alive, but is described literally, as both the “word of life”, and “the Eternal Life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us”.  Where He is present, death cannot have power. 

We live in this weird, upside down world.  His glory, and his power are everywhere.  We have hope, life, joy, because of Christ, but we are still living in this “already, not yet” place.  We are still battling our flesh, our dead rotting carcass.  We still grieve over the consequences of sin.  We still experience the excruciating hurt of death, separation, and loneliness.  We are in a constant state of longing for the groaning’s of this earth to be done.  We live imperfectly, even when we desire to live well.  We get distracted by this shiny world.  It's false comforts (the right political parties, our gun rights/or gun rights being taken away, the house in the safe neighborhood, good vaccinations and medical care...).  We replace truth for a lie, daily.  

We are ready for our faith to become sight.

What we experience on this earth, all it’s beauty and good.  It cannot compare to the full color Kingdom that it mirrors imperfectly.  There is hope, only because our salvation is sure.

Here’s the coolest part of any of this.  1 John 4, John really pins us to the wall, that if we don’t love our brothers, we have not experienced God’s love…. There’s no escaping this.  But then this amazing, hopeful verse, 1 John 4:17 – “By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.”

We are the love.  We are the light, not because of anything in US, but because of the power of His Spirit within us.  1 John 1:1-4 talks about how John saw, heard, touched Jesus, physically.  We are that for this world... unless WE get in the way.

We live in this upside down world, looking for survivors, finding people who are looking for the way out, let's not trip over our own shoelaces as we drag out those who are barely breathing.

Thanks for sticking with me through my weird musings. J