The Sky Is Crying
“And the pastures of the shepherds shall mourn” Amos 1:2
Mourn – We’re connected. The Hebrew perspective on Man is that we stand on the ground and are directly related to it. We came from the earth, but we are animated from heaven. We stand between the two, the only creatures that combine both. So, when God’s judgment falls upon us, the ground itself is affected. Stevie Ray Vaughan was right. The Sky Is Crying.
The Hebrew word is ‘aval. The pictograph shows us some of the connections. Aleph-Bet-Lamed are the consonants. The picture is “control of the strength (leader) of the house.” Mourning takes over. It is such a strong emotion in biblical thought that it expresses itself in ways that push aside everything else. Why? Because mourning is most often associated with God’s judgment.
Think about the importance of mourning in spiritual life. Without deep sorrow and shattering remorse, how would we come to repentance? Without repentance, how would we experience grace? And without grace, what could life possibly mean? Unlike the Greek idea of balance, Hebrew recognizes the critical place of emotions, especially emotions that lead us into the heart of the compassionate God. Where the Greeks feared emotional imbalance, the Hebrews saw emotions as powerful channels that open life to God. Fear, mourning, grief and sorrow are just as valuable as love, joy, peace and rejoicing. All belong to the creature in the middle, standing between heaven and earth.
But the Greeks missed one other aspect of emotions that must become part of our spiritual repertoire. We aren’t the only things that weep. We are connected to the earth, and the earth experiences distress over brokenness with its Creator too. No, this isn’t cartoon animation or anthropomorphic mythology. Nevertheless, there is something vital about all of God’s creation, and therefore God’s judgments affect the whole of creation, not just its human benefactors. There is a reason the ground cries out over Abel’s spilled blood. There is a reason Paul tells us that the cosmos groans waiting for the Redeemer. And in Amos, God says that the pastures will mourn. Our sins have ecological consequences. Even those little white lies.
This isn’t a story about pollution, at least not in the common use of the term. This is a story about a different kind of pollution; a pollution that desecrates God’s creation. It is spiritual pollution, but it has physical consequences. Maybe it’s time for us to repent of something more than our lies and our pride. Maybe it time for us to see that the sky is crying.
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