“And everyone is the friend of a man who gives gifts.” Proverbs 19:6.

There is a distinction between the experience of the earth lifestyle, and the goal of God for all creation. We have the phrase, “stop and smell the roses“. It implies we’re too busy. The irony of a beautiful creation, and 1 million delights from a creative God is that what absolutely needs to happen in this age is not the enjoyment of the creative gifts. It was Paul who said that the time is short, and that those who make use of the world should be as though they do not make use of the world. He even promoted celibacy because the time was so short. They had those among them who were so confident at the shortness of the time that they stopped working. These are the ones who needed to work or could not eat at the communal table. But Paul did not deny that the time was short.

From God‘s perspective, what was originally designed to be glorious and praiseworthy as far as creation and the good gifts of his creativity have now become thorns in his side, as far as a people focused on his real goal: the internal development of a people after the image of his son. Paul, then, did not stop and smell the roses so much as he allowed himself to be the crushed rose so that the fragrance of Christ could shine that much more. 2 Cor 2.

As a correlating point to this, it’s worth identifying how Paul spoke to and encouraged the Saints during the shortness of the time. Not once did he assume that they needed anything less than Christ and His fullness, and that the fullness of Christ was the point that was lacking in the churches of the first century. 2000 years later we suffer from delighting in creation, and the belief that fullness is not the primary goal of God for this age but for the next. Instead we have the self assurance of busyness. In this way, smelling the roses and stopping our busyness to smell them have both become two sides of a very wrong coin.

If the time would be short once again we will have to heed Paul’s teachings as to the goal of God in Christ in us. In its simplest form, that which God deposited by seed in us must grow to become the manifold wisdom of God on display through the church even now. The wisdom of God is Jesus. May he dwell in our hearts more greatly through faith!