Everyday JoysSample

A LITTLE BIBLICAL MATH

While I spend most days working with words, there’s a part of me that loves math. Especially algebra. Crazy, right? (Although, when words and math join forces to create impossible-to-solve problems about trains, speeds, and . . . Why are people taking my apples anyway? That I do not love.)

Perhaps it’s the simple certainty of math that’s so appealing. The way the numbers, letters, and unknowns resolve themselves into an orderly series of steps that lead straight to the one-and-only answer. I like one-and-only answers.

So it wasn’t a complete surprise when, one day, I found myself studying a bit of Scripture—one I’d read a thousand times before—and suddenly applying a math formula to it.

If A equals B and B equals C, then A also equals C.

It’s called the transitive law. I think.

The Scripture was Exodus 3. Moses had stepped up to the burning bush. (Because who wouldn’t want a closer look at something like that?) Then the voice of God called out to him and said, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

Holy ground. Ground made holy by the presence of God.

Hold on to that thought and fast forward a few thousand years to the new covenant of Christ. As Jesus prepared to return to His Father, He promised a gift to us as believers: the Holy Spirit of God would come to live inside us. We would become His dwelling place (1 Corinthians 6:19). Which means that where we go, He goes. Every step of the way. So then . . . every step of the way becomes holy ground. In other words:

If I am the dwelling place of God’s presence and God’s presence equals holy ground, then wherever I go is holy ground. Because He is with me.

Just a little beautiful, biblical math found at the intersection of ordinary and divine.

Challenge: Say His Name: Lord, Father, Jesus, El Shaddai. Then let yourself remember that He is here, with you, on this little patch of holy ground.