Separation and Integration

UV 2872/10000 Separation and Integration
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1 v 10
A human without God is like dry land. He feels safe being on firm ground. But the truth is that the real safety and blessing lies in being in the water of the deep ocean of God’s love. In truth, a man without God is like fish out of water, struggling for love and hope. Incidentally, the only creatures that escaped death in the great flood of Noah’s times were the sea creatures and fish. God of the Bible is like a deep ocean. The more we dive into Him, the more there is to discover. Yes, there may be many storms and floods occurring on the surface of the water but the fish that swim deep continue to swim unaffected by the surface storms.
The most precious pearl of all for which it is worth giving up – the Kingdom of Jesus lies in the ocean of God. The ocean of God’s infinite goodness contains many treasures and pleasures of wisdom, spiritual riches and blessings of every kind. As we continue to go below the surface and swim in His love, discovering its length, depth and width, He will affirm and sustain us. We find two processes working side by side in the acts of creation of God- separating and integration. He separates light from darkness, dry ground from water symbolic of the ongoing process of separating evil from good around us and in us through Christ. After the process is over, God calls or defines the dry land –earth and the water as the seas. Hence, there is an ongoing churning, refining, purifying going on in us. He is separating His children, the redeemed from the rest of creation. He is separating good from evil in each of us. We are first refined and then defined or given a new name or identity.
How do we learn to swim in God, the great and deep invisible ocean of love? How do we aid or cooperate and not resist the process of separation, integration and refinement? The name “earth” has in it a clue: ear+th. We need to hear the word of God, spoken by the very source of all creation, separation, integration and affirmation and then think deeply on it so that we go far below the level at which our physical senses tend to keep us at. We need to move from the natural to the supernatural, the physical to the spiritual, the temporal to the eternal. Of course, like the fish, we can keep coming to the surface from time to time to get some air and to get our bearings in this world.
Prateep V Philip