Imperfect Unions and the Kingdom of God
The whole human race was created by God and for God. In a sense, all our hungers, desires, and longings are pale reflections of our desire for God. And no less certain, we will never be satisfied with our petty thirsts until such time as we have allowed God to pour himself into us so that we will be full.
Paul says in Acts 17: God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’
And Augustine said it equally well, “Thou hast created us for Thyself, and our heart is not quiet until it rests in Thee.”
This longing is not less pressing in the quest and desire for justice. All true justice and righteousness comes from God and from God alone, who “judges the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity.” (psalm 98)
So, in this time of elections and seeking out a greater fairness and perfection for our imperfect union, it is always worth taking a moment to realize that our elections, speeches, and positions are more important in that they point to our need for God who alone can bring justice. They point to our human brokenness in our inability to being about a just order of creation and society. They point to the fact that we lie to one another and to ourselves when we think that this or that party or candidate will somehow bring about the good commonwealth.
We do not need another Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, or Thomas Jefferson . . . We need God. We need God desperately.
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