Up, Up and Away

This week is the annual Balloon Fiesta here in Albuquerque, and that means 2 things, we get a pretty cool skyline like above and also we get a lot of traffic with all the tourists. They estimate that over 100,000 people will go to the fiesta, and that got me thinking. Why?? What is so great about watching big, colorful balls go up in the air, I mean unless you are riding in one all you are is a spectator. The answer came this morning as I drove to work. My drive is usually across town from my home on the west mesa to my office so I have a pretty cool view of the whole city as I come down. I caught myself watching the balloons more than the road, and I thought to myself, how cool, how grand, how peaceful, but mostly "dang that is a lot of balloons".

What popped in my head was what John Piper said last week about greatness, how we do not go to the Bulls game cause Michael Jordan is just as good as us, or go hear U2 cause Bono is an average singer, no we go cause we are naturally attracted to that which is greater, grander, more awesome than us. While Bono and Jordan are talented, this natural instinct was made for adoration and worship of God, the grandest, greatest and most awesome One. So we do not go to the balloon fiesta to see a bunch of balloons we blew up, no, we go to see giant globes that carry people!!! We go to watch a giant polar bear, or whiskey bottle float up in the air as we look at it and realize how big the balloon is and then in turn how little we are.

What a God we have, how he uses Balloons floating over our city to point to His greatness, to His bigness. It does not stop simply there, for us that are in Christ it points to more. We see His transcendence and then marvel at His immenence (closeness) to us through His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus is God, and is what big balloons and great athletes point to, even if they don't know it. He is the all and all, He is the only one deserving the title Awesome! He came down took on our flesh, experienced our struggles, and in a lot of ways experienced struggles we will never face, and then was killed on a cross, and 3 days later was resurrected and exalted to the right side of the Father where He reigns. He also sends down the Holy Spirit, also God, to live in our hearts and minds, to open our eyes and unclogg our ears, to see and hear the Great News of our Glorious Redeemer. Yeah that seems to be greater than a floating bottle, or bear.

Hallelujah, What a Saviour!!!!