Scripture reading: Colossians 1:15–23

Divine Superglue

In him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:17)

Do you ever feel like the world is falling apart and coming unhinged? Does it sometimes seem that civilization is unravelling and fragmenting so that all we have are factions and special interest groups? Do you find yourself looking for a fixed point, a cohesive center that is immovable and unchanging . . . yet finding none?

Well, welcome to human history. Though it may not seem like it, you are not the first to be troubled by such questions. At other times and in other places, people like you have struggled to cope with a world that appeared to be coming apart. Ours is not the first generation to confront political instability, international unrest, economic uncertainty, family breakdown, moral decline, and religious relativism. Others have peered into the future and wondered if they too were on the eve of destruction.

Almost a century ago, the Irish poet William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) felt that the world he lived in was coming apart. The year was 1919, and the killing fields of Europe were still drenched in the blood of the First World War. The Russian revolution had ushered atheistic communism onto the center stage of world affairs. The foundations were shaking. Looking into the darkness, Yeats prophetically wrote:

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand . . .

Without a cohesive center:

,. Morality will unravel. Every man will become a law unto himself, doing what is right in his own eyes.

,. Truth will vanish. The search for Truth will be replaced by the celebration of personal preferences and individual values.

,. Justice will splinter into a thousand pieces as lawyers and judges begin think it is their job to create laws rather than interpret the Law given by God.

,. Community will disappear and tribalism emerge in its place. The “common good” will be only a quaint memory as lobbyists and special interest groups must clamor more and more loudly for attention.

History is littered with failed civilizations that fell apart because their center didn’t hold. Little wonder. There is only one Center that can: Jesus Christ. In him and in him alone do all things hold together (Col. 1:17). At his Second Coming, when he returns in power and glory, his sheer presence will be the cohesive force that enables the kingdoms of this world to become his one, eternal kingdom (Revelation 11:15). But why wait till then? Today, he can be the divine Superglue that holds your life together! Let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken (Hebrews 12:28).

Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me. Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me. Christ beneath me. Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger. — attributed to St. Patrick

point to ponder • Without a cohesive center things will indeed ultimately fall apart.

prayer focus • Thy Kingdom come.