I was watching an Andy Andrews podcast recently, and he was talking about how we have to escape thinking through an incomplete thought. Incomplete thoughts are dangerous. Well, not like tornadoes or anything, but still. We want to think things through. Granted sometimes that can take time. Sometimes when I write here at I’m Just Thinkin’ I will end an incomplete thought with an ellipse (…). In fact, I do it quite frequently. Why? Well, it generates thought process that leads to conversation. Conversational exchange broadens the thought. Questions come up that might not have emerged.
Questions. A major turning point for me in my faith journey was when my faith grew more substantial than the issues I had. Questions? Yes, some of them I still have. Here’s one: Is there intelligent life elsewhere? That’s a pretty big concept to wrap my mind around. Are we alone in the plot with an eternal result? Let’s think this through and we’ll be coming back to that shortly.
Forging ahead to plot. It’s not super complicated. We have to think cause and effect here. It’s a series of events that make up a story and lead us to “and so.” You got it, babe, the climax of the tale. Many a novel follow the same general plot. The circumstances change, but the plot remains the same. There are even templates for Fiction plots. Many start off with character development; the conflict is introduced; rising action leading up to the climax, and then winding up the story. All the loose ends are tied up. Incomplete thoughts? Well, sometimes we do encounter them in a novel or movie, but we want to know how the story ends.
The power of story – so let’s take this notion and apply it to humanity. You know, the plot with an eternal result. Really? Yep, just wait. One cool aspect that I love about my church is that it is Gospel centered. We keep it simple. We learn how events that occur in the Old Testament will relate or point to the Gospel, and to Jesus. For example, many a Prophet offered the foreshadowing of Jesus’ arrival, ministry, and resurrection.
“The Old Testament is in the New revealed and the New is in the Old concealed.†Augustine
Jesus clearly says in Matthew 5:17 that He came to fulfill the foreshadowing through the Law and the Prophets.
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” Jesus, in Matthew 5:17
Moses is the clearest Old Testament person whom we can look to as one of the greatest types of Jesus. Time and again, Moses’ life story pointed us to Jesus through his faith and leadership. And where was the conflict introduced for humanity? Hmm, pretty early on right? Like in the Garden of Eden? Yes! The cross was the climax? Yes, the cross was the point from the very beginning. It was the fulfillment mentioned in Matthew 5:17. So now we’re just tying up the loose ends.
So all that leads us back to this question: Is there intelligent life elsewhere? What does the Bible say about that? Did God create life on other planets?
This is part 1 of a 2 part series. Please check back next week for part 2.
Image courtesy of Adrian Senn on flickr.com
