Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith—to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.
Romans 16:25–27
I remember only one thing from a half-year forestry class I took in high school: a goldfish died on my watch.
My teacher announced one day that we had to prepare for the coming of a goldfish in about a week. He put us in groups and gave us materials that described how to care for a goldfish. We had to prepare a tank. We had to condition and aerate the water. When the fish arrived, we were supposed to acclimate the goldfish to the new environment by placing the bag of water with the fish in our tank, so that the temperature would equalize slowly. Otherwise, the fish might die from shock.
My group was not up to the task. We did get water in a tank and managed to prepare the water, but we forgot about acclimation. We opened the bag and poured the fish into our tank. Our teacher said nothing, but I could see the worry on his face. The next day, when we came to class, the goldfish had died, its body floating in the water. My teacher asked us what we learned. Four 16-year-old boys shrugged. He added, “Life happens under certain conditions, and it needs to be cared for.” Ok. Got it.
In these final words from the letter to the Romans, Paul is ecstatic that, in Jesus, God has unveiled a secret, a mystery, that God had kept close to the chest for long ages. God was active in creation for eons and spoke in Israel for hundreds of years before the big unveil of Jesus. Why did God take so long? Probably because God breaking into creation requires preparation and acclimation. Adam and Eve hid from a God who walked near them, which shows that God’s presence, especially God’s presence in the flesh, takes some getting used to. You might say that God, through those eons and years of prophecy, ever so slowly, put the colder water of creation into the warmer water of God’s life so that when the moment came, we wouldn’t die of shock. Instead, because God waited until we were ready, we can swim in, enjoy, and revel in God’s life in Christ. In fact, that’s the way to be acclimated for the next big reveal of Christ’s coming: to learn in thought, word and deed to enjoy God’s life in Christ now, because that’s what, in God’s mercy, we will be doing, as Paul says, “forever.” Amen.
Dr. Keith Starkenburg is the director of the Vita Scholars Program at Hope College and Western Theological Seminary and associate professor of theology and interim associate dean at Western Theological Seminary.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.