When And Where

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will 

Ephesians 1:3,4 (ESV)

When

God, the subject of these verses, acts out some verbs on direct objects. The actions are that of choosing and destin-ing, and the direct objects are believers. These actions are past tense, the tensiest past you can think of – before creation. God didn’t make His choice that we Christians should be holy and blameless when we were all primped and clipped for the 4-H fair; His selection was not based on scouting trips leading to draft day. It was before there was matter, before there was time. It antedates the choices of those he chooses – before they have done anything good or bad.

Where

He has no interest for His elect to be holy and without blemish living down the street; He doesn’t purify the ungodly so that He can occasionally bump into them in the produce section inspecting cantaloupes; He doesn’t adopt orphans for so he can see them one weekend a month and take them to the zoo. So where are the children of God? They are right in front of him. The Greek, katenopion, combines “down” and “in the eye”, so the location of God’s elect, and the purpose of His electing is so that they may be holy and blameless right under His nose, in His direct, concentrated gaze.

There is nothing more foreign to the world than the loving gaze of a father. Even after he purifies us and takes away all blemishes through Jesus, it is hard to shake the habitual assumption the gaze is inquisitional. The mind jumps to mustard stains and grubby fingernails and stubborn cowlicks. Until He opens the barn door and we see it packed from floor to ceiling with spiritual blessings, and begin acclimating to the idea that not only does He want us around, He means for us to spend our days deep down inside His eyes. Belonging is a strange feeling.