The Wide Work of Christ

Through him God was pleased to reconcile all things to himself
things on earth and things in heaven
making peace through the blood of his cross.

Not some things.
Not only the worthy things.
All things.

The hidden fracture in the world
the quiet estrangement in the human heart
the long ache of history
the violence we inherit and the wounds we carry
none of it lies outside the reach of Christ.

The cross is not a narrow doorway for a few
but the deep center where everything broken is gathered.

Here hostility is unmade.
Here distance is crossed.
Here even what resists love is slowly surrounded by it.

The peace of Christ is not fragile agreement
but a steady, patient restoring
like roots pressing through hard soil
like light finding its way into a closed room.

And so reconciliation is not only a doctrine to believe
but a reality to inhabit.

We learn to live as those already being gathered
already being healed
already being brought home.

The cross stands at the center of all things
not as a sign of defeat
but as the quiet place where the world is being made whole.

Running Between Worlds: A Poetic Retelling of Hebrews 11–12:2

Five shadowed figures walk along a narrow path through a golden field toward distant mountains, under a dark, moody sky.

I think of faith, and it feels like a pulse beneath the skin.
Not loud.
Not something you can point to.
Just the quiet certainty that what we hope for is already alive, even when the eyes see nothing.

This is how they lived, those who came before us.
They stepped forward into places they could not see.
They believed a voice that spoke before time began.
The world was called out of nothing, from what no hand could hold.

I remember Abel, whose blood still sings.
Enoch, who walked with God until the earth could no longer keep him.
Noah, hammering wood while the sky stayed clear.
Abraham, leaving the warmth of the known, set up tents in a land that was only his by promise.
Sarah, laughing at the thought, then held laughter itself in her arms.

The dying blesses the living.
The bound blessing the free.
The exiles blessed the land they had never touched.

Some saw seas open.
Some saw walls crumble.
Some silenced the mouths of lions.
Others felt the weight of chains, the teeth of the saw.
They wandered deserts, hid in caves, clothed in skins, strangers, the world was not worthy of.

And all of them died still looking forward,
eyes lit by a promise that waited for us too.

So here we are, surrounded by their presence,
their stories still breathing in the air around us.
We let go of what weighs us down.
We shake free from the sin that clings like a shadow.
We run, slow and steady, breath after breath,
our eyes on Jesus.

He is the one who began this faith.
He is the one who will bring it to completion.
For joy beyond the grave, He endured the cross.
He bore the shame and broke its hold.
And now He rests in light, at the right hand of God.