Hmmm....moment

So, my spark of inspiration came from a somewhat unlikely occasion: a graduation address. These speeches are not where you might expect to receive philosophically or thought provoking ideas, but this was in fact the case of the graduation address at the homeschool graduation I attended to watch my friend Linda (some of you may recall me mentioning her, her mom died a few weeks before we got out of school). Anyway, the speaker was telling the graduates how they had been growing and were taking steps and graduating from stages, but that they were not done yet. Typical topic. But, he was comparing it to the Bible, saying that the whole story of the Bible was the maturing of God's people and how he was growing them. This was an interesting thought because of what you can extrapolate from the idea. How do explain how we've gone from cavemen with crude cave drawings to launching tons of steel to far reaching corners of space? We have problems reconciling this apparent evolution (little "e") or progression of humanity. God didn't mess up the first time and start creating better models. But what if we go with the idea that the whole world is God's work to mature His creation. All of humanity is God's story of development. We are not less intelligent when we are babies, we just don't know as much, we are not as developed. As adults we still have the same parts, but we know differently how to use them. Can we apply this to history? The stone age like an infant, the bronze age a toddler, moving on up to present times as the human race grows more mature? Perhaps this explains the apparent betterment of society, new discoveries, new technology, etc. We are not better, just older. We are people in a later phase of the maturing process of God's people. Also, perhaps this maturing idea can also explain law/grace. Why was the law abolished? Or was it? Why was the law holy and perfect and then insufficient? Returning to the idea of our human development. The speaker talked about how as a little child you have to be under lots of rules. You have to ask when you can eat, if it's okay to cross the street, you must have someone holding your hand. As we grow older, the layers of rules as pulled away as our parents hope that we internalize their teachings and they trust us to make our decisions wisely. If we say that the Bible is the story of maturing of God's people, then perhaps that is a way to look at the 'switch' from law to grace. In their infancy, God's people needed a structure, a law, to show them how to follow their father, but as the people grew and matured, God was able to let His law live in the hearts of His people. Christ's death and ressurrection fulfilled the law, like a parent letting a child go to begin life on their own. God let us live in grace, apart from the law. So, it's not that the law is bad, or insufficient, but perhaps we just graduated from it. I'm not trying to say that these ideas are in any way true or biblically supported. But the ideas the speaker presented struck a chord of logic in me and was one of those 'aha' moments where it was like...hmm...this could make sense of some things. I thought it was a blog-worthy subject and offer it up to the brilliant minds to process.