Imagine the first thing you saw in the morning was the very face of God Himself. Seriously! Don't read on until you really wrap your mind around that scenario.
In Genesis 2 God makes Adam out of the dust and then breathes the breath of life into him. Which means the very first moment of his very first day was seeing God Himself.
Everything else Adam saw after that was before the chaotic, perverting force of sin marred it all. Everything was in proper relationship with its Creator. The waters teemed with fish (Gen. 1:20). Light was perfectly contrasted with dark in a world that ebbed and flowed seamlessly among its seasons (Gen.1:14-19), an artist's dreamworld. And everything Adam would encounter, be it a starry night, a sea full of sea creatures, or a tree in full bloom of fruit, it all would pale in comparison to seeing The Creator. As a result, everything Adam would have seen would have been seen "in the light of" its Creator.
Imagine seeing the tuna leap out of the water for the first time. Oh, awesome! Still not as great as seeing God.
Adam's first sunset. Wow! Still not God. Amazing. But not God.
First bight into a perfectly ripe mango. Mmmmmmm. Still. Not. God.
And this wouldn't ever take away from mangoes, sunsets or tuna, no, it would only properly place the mangoes, sunsets and tuna in their proper place: beneath God in their glory, but given glory because of God.
Which of course brings us to sushi.
Imagine Adam takes, the mango, combines it with the tuna, adds some cucumber, and mashes it together square in the center of a seaweed mat and rice frame. The mix of colors reminds him of a sunset, the mix of tastes awakens the entire pallet, a miniature version of the rush of waking up to God's face. Each individual ingredient reminds him of the Creator, and the act itself of creating draws him closer to The Creator. Yet the act of sushi-making still isn't as good as being face to face with The Creator.
Sports can and ought to be viewed similarly. Our sports are a mishmash of created things. Gravity. Painted lines. Grass. Hardwood. Leather. Spheres. Math. Teamwork. Creativity. Ingenuity. Strategy. Wood. Water. Economics. And so on and on and on. All of which contains glory; mash them together they bring about more glory.
Still. Not. God Himself though. That's a joy unto itself.
For a lot of athletes and fans, we might not say that sports are the most important thing to us, but a look at our actions, routines, money-spending, etc., often say that sports is more important than God.
My claim here is that seeing God for who He really is will actually allow us to love sports more and better. And properly loving sports will actually cause us to love God more and better.
It's an audacious claim, but I want to flesh it out. Will you join me next time as we talk about God losing sight of Adam, idols, too much of a good thing never being a good thing?
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