Intimacy and Transcendence

It is another gray, dimly lit, and a bit damp Portland Saturday, so I decided to take the girls to OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) to see an IMAX movie. I've been to OMSI countless times on our family membership and had almost forgotten about the free tickets I had stuffed in my purse weeks ago. Sitting with Eleanor in my lap I was truly in awe as the five-story domed screen covering 6,532 sq. ft. of projection surface was filled with the colors and light of the deep sea (http://www.imax.com/deepsea/). As Rynn jumped in her seat, Eleanor leaned over and whispered in my ear, "Mommy, I feel like I'm under water. It didn't look like this on the computer." And indeed it didn't. The sense of transcendence that washed over me was remarkable, and it set me to thinking about the longing of the human heart to be absorbed in something bigger than ourselves. Watching the screen fill with the tiny wonders of the depths of the sea I also began wondering about our human need for intimacy and community. This tension, these longings- to be known deeply, to be understood, to be loved, to belong are deep. And yet, with those longings for intimacy we carry a need to be awash in something grander than ourselves, to feel small, absorbed, and amazed. And this is the ministry of Christ- God transcendent becoming human flesh. The creator of all space and time becoming a baby, walking among men, dying on a cross, and sending His Holy Spirit. This is the season of Advent. The celebration of a transcendence greater than anything creation can provide and yet a relational intimacy deeper than our innermost longings could hope.