A Staggering Work of Heartbreaking Genius

I read that book title a few years ago and thought. That. Is the single best book title I've ever seen.  Did I read the book?  Nope.  Cuz the content didn't seem all that staggering or heartbreaking or genius.  But the title, that got my attention.

Over the years the title has popped into my head now and again, and I've wondered, what would qualify as a staggering work of heartbreaking genius? 

I remember being very young, oh 7 or 8, and playing dolls with my friend who lived downstairs from us.  Our version of dolls was pretty crafty though, if I do say so myself.  Instead of actually creating storylines and scenarios, we were totally into making the houses and the furniture.  Cardboard, craft paper, scissors, markers, glue...we created some masterpieces and mansions.  I distinctly remember turning an entire bookcase in my room into a doll's paradise.  Eat your heart out, Beverly Hills.  There was a storage room, or bodega, in the back of our building and we took over that too, and turned it into a playhouse.  Every little girl does it and  I was no different.  Dreams of being grown, and decorating my house.  Dreams of the bright and shiny future that would go exactly as I planned for it to go.  Rose colored.  Gold colored.  Filled with light and love.

Well.  And then we grow up.

This past week was pretty monumental.  It included 2 earthquakes, a hurricane, a baptism, and several conversations with friends who have fallen apart a little bit.  It would be easy to draw that cliche between the storm outside and the storms in our lives.  In fact, I just typed a sentence out saying exactly that.  And hurricanes are pretty great visual aides for the devastation a storm can create.  But the point is not the storm and the havoc and the damage it creates.  Physical or metaphysical.  I've talked a lot on this blog about suffering and pain and struggle.  My own.  Other people's.  My family's.  Peter, as in the disciple-slash-apostle guy, said it pretty well:

For, “All people are like grass,
   and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,

Isn't that delightful.

But.  Here's where the heartbreaking work of staggering genius comes in.  Are you ready?  After the falling, the Jesus following human being gets back up.  Peter had lots of those moments.  He decided to jump out of the boat he was in and walk on water to Jesus.  He did really good for like two steps and then started to sink.  He fell in.  Jesus walked over and grabbed his hand and pulled him back up.   A little later in his life, he took a really pivotal opportunity to deny multiple times that he ever knew Jesus.  A different kind of fall.  And over breakfast on a beach Jesus restored their relationship.  And Peter got back up.

Humanity is a staggering heartbreak.  We screw up on a daily basis.  Bad.  Hard.  Yucky stuff.  Stuff you don't want anyone to know about.  Sometimes our lives can feel and look like a hurricane just went through.  Or an earthquake just hit.  But the best part is to come!  The genius is that God takes our fall and lifts us up.  Changes the outcome and the interiors of our souls.  Restores our relationship and does not leave us in the grime and filth of our lives.  The human race is God's staggering work of heartbreaking genius.  Whether the story is of a new Christ follower who has been changed and turned from a life of despair.   Or like the story of my friend who had to resign from his church because he screwed up major big time.  But asks forgiveness and believes in grace.  God is not done with any single one of us when we fall at any point in our journey with him.   God is building his story.  His home to be filled with us.  And the future he has going on is rosy and gold.  And will not change.

So here is the story of us.  Of those who follow God.

^Proverbs:
 for though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again

Psalm 103

⁸ The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
   slow to anger, abounding in love.
⁹ He will not always accuse,
   nor will he harbor his anger forever;
¹⁰ he does not treat us as our sins deserve
   or repay us according to our iniquities.
¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
   so great is his love for those who fear him;
¹² as far as the east is from the west,
   so far has he removed our transgressions from us.   
¹³ As a father has compassion on his children,
   so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
¹⁴ for he knows how we are formed,
   he remembers that we are dust.
¹⁵ The life of mortals is like grass,
   they flourish like a flower of the field;
¹⁶ the wind blows over it and it is gone,
   and its place remembers it no more.
¹⁷ But from everlasting to everlasting
   the LORD’s love is with those who fear him,
   and his righteousness with their children’s children—