The end of this passage always gets to me -- here is Jesus, able to restore men so fierce that people wouldn't even go near them, stronger than any force that has ever walked the face of the earth... and the people are afraid and beg him to leave.
This is what happens when we lower our vision. When we fix our eyes on heaven, we get the earth thrown in. But when we focus on earth, we miss out on both, because we're so afraid of losing what we have, we are paralyzed in fear and anxiety. Our treasures are slipping through our hands, through time or carelessness or enemies, and we can't stop them. The townspeople only saw the disruption, they couldn't see the treasures. They were staring at an old building that needed to be torn down, only they couldn't imagine what might go up in its place.
When we look at our own hearts, may we trust the God who made them, that the longings for eternity held within them should be heeded. Tim Keller talks about how we invite God in for lunch, thinking it'll be polite, and then God starts tearing down walls, because the shack we live in will be transformed into a mansion. If we run in fear at the first sign of disruption, we miss out on the mansion. But if we stay with the process, and endure the discomfort, we discover the marvelous love of God along the way.
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