A Grand Love Story: Clothed in Christ (guest post by Terry Murphy)

Clothed in Christ – Part of His Grand Love Story

Everything God made, including the tabernacle, is part of the grand love story He’s written in creation. The main characters are Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but we play important supporting characters in His plot line. As His narrative reveals, we are the objects of His desire.

Creation’s Love Story

He introduced His story with creation, explaining much of His tale in words anyone can understand. “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork” (Psalm 19:1-4). Who, after all, hasn’t read a theme of rebirth and transformation in the life cycle of the butterfly? Who hasn’t noted the similarity between the seasons of the earth and seasons in our lives?

Everything God made, including the tabernacle, is part of the grand love story He’s written in creation. Share on X

He fleshed out more of the story in the descriptions of His tabernacle in the wilderness. Using the tent as an illustration of what He wanted our lives with Him to look like, God filled the blueprints with details affirming our place with Him.

Though He filled His dwelling place with symbols of Himself, God never intended to live in His tabernacle alone. It was fashioned to house a family and includes in its design hints at how we can choose to abide with Him every day.

Love Story in the Tabernacle

The tabernacle is a type of “picture book” for us to read—illustrating where we fit in His life. My favorite part of the story is in the two innermost rooms. There in the holy place and the Holy of Holies, the walls and most of the pieces of furniture are framed in wood and dressed with gold.

Wood traditionally symbolizes humanity in Scripture, while gold symbolizes divinity. Most often we interpret this aspect of the tabernacle as revealing Christ in His fully human, yet fully divine state. He is Emmanuel, God with us, after all.

The #tabernacle is a type of “picture book” for us to read—illustrating where we fit in His life. #GodsLoveStory Share on X

Yet the closeness of the wood to the gold seems to carry an additional expression of His desire to live intimately with us as well. We might just as easily see ourselves in the picture. Ordinary men and women, like common wood, who act as frames over which He drapes His glory. All we need do is receive Him as Savior.

We're ordinary men and women, like common wood, who act as frames over which God drapes His glory. #TMurphyWrites Share on X

Jesus Invites us to His Love Story

Jesus was born with this dual reality, but we can be born again into it. We are naught but naked wood until He honors us with the prospect of being like Him—obtaining all our value, all our beauty from He who clothes us with Himself. (Romans 8:29, 2 Peter 1:4).

“For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee” (2 Corinthians 5:4–5 NKJV).

Are you clothed in Christ?

What has God shown to you as part of His love story?

In what way has Christ covered you with His glory?

Leave a comment below and join the conversation.

Want to know more about God’s Tabernacle and the connection to Christ? This YouTube video gives you more.

 

Terry Murphy lives with her happily retired husband in the Pacific Northwest where they constantly look forward to the next visit from their children and grandchildren. When she’s not rearranging the dirt in her garden, Terry loves retelling the God-stories she finds in His word or creation. You can read more of her blogs at www.tmurphywrites.com.

Images courtesy of Pixabay (no attribution req)

 

 

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