I Am, He Is, To Be

One thing about having kids still at home is that there is a constant review at homework time of the things we almost learned growing up. I have given up helping with math. Science was good until the college student hit Genetics... now I’m lost. My contribution to her understanding of genetics is going to have to come through genetics, not what I know. A couple of weekends ago, Danielle, our junior in college (with a Spanish minor) was talking with Gabby, our Spanish 3 High School student. They were conjugating the future participle tense of some Spanish verb. It was a tongue twister that rhymed and they laughed when they were done... and dad realized just how little he remembered of 2 years of high school Spanish.

It was the conjugation that caught my attention. It had been a long time since I had tried to conjugate a verb. Walk down memory lane with me. Take the verb in its infinitive form: To Be. When you conjugate it into first, second and third person, singular form, it is … I Am You Are He/She Is (There is a point to this painful walk down the homework memory lane, just wait…)

In the New Testament, one of the favorite ways Jesus referred to Himself is the Son of Man. Often in parables and in His teaching, He would refer to Himself with that title, Son of Man. I have always found it interesting that Jesus used this title the most of all the titles He held.

Think about it with me for a minute. Jesus had some pretty incredible titles to His credit. He was the Eternal Creator, the Prince of Peace, the Almighty Lord, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords. He was the Living Word, the Son of God, Emmanuel (God with Us) and God in the flesh incarnate. In the Old Testament (yes, Jesus existed in the Old Testament), God is referred to with over 30 titles/names. The God who provides (JEHOVAH-JIREH), the God who heals (JEHOVAH-RAPHA), the God of Might (EL-ELYON), the God of peace (JEHOVAH-SHALOM). And of all these titles to choose from, Jesus preferred Son of Man.

I have no theological reason why. The Bible doesn’t tell us. But I do have an opinion…. It was his newest title. Jesus had existed forever and would exist forever, but He had never been the Son of Man before. This was the shiny new title in the trophy case. This one may have been His hardest role: To limit Himself, to live among us, to walk here, to smell here, to serve us. Son of Man. I am not sure that God ever gets tired of become something new. Not changing. His nature does not change, but becoming something new. Let me explain.

There is something about the temporary nature of our existence that allows God to become something new in us. The Great I AM has always been the Creator – and will always be creative. He will always be Lord, King, Mighty, Provider, Peace, and Love. And yet, He becomes those things all over again when we let Him become those things to us.

God acknowledges that I AM the Provider. We admit, “God, YOU ARE the Provider.” But when we allow Him TO BE our provider, He becomes something new again in me. God claims that I AM your Savior. We declare, “God, YOU ARE my Savior.” But when we let Him save us God gets TO BE our Savior. God is Peace. We declare Him to be Peace, but when we let Him BE peace in us, HE IS something new in us that He has never been before. He becomes our peace. He becomes Andy’s Savior. He becomes my Provider.

And that is something that never gets old for God (and God is pretty old…) Becoming something new in us, to us, for us.

Maybe that is why the angels sang so loudly at the birth of Jesus. God was about to become something new for us again. The great I AM was about TO BE something brand new. Maybe that is why the angles rejoice in heaven when a lost person becomes saved. God is becoming something new again to one of us. Something new in us. Someone new for us. I AM God, You Are He Is To Be

Every time we let Him become something new to us, God gets TO BE something He has never been before. And that does not just help us along the way – it brings God great joy. And in a world that seems to not want to notice Him anymore, I can think of no better gift for our God than to bring him great joy. He owns everything already. He doesn’t need any material thing. The only thing left for Him to experience new is what we let Him BE TO us.

Surrendering more and more to the Great I AM… just to see Him smile, and heaven dance, and angels sing,

Andy