Robert E Rasmussen.com

I am speculating, being an unlikely source for explaining God beyond what is explicitly stated in the Bible. But I want to pass along an observation I have made.

This last Sunday in the corporate worship at our church, there was a familiar member of our congregation present who has been stricken with cancer which has left him fatigued and without successful diagnosis or treatment. He has lost a lot of weight, yet still comes when he has the strength and participates in our worship.

At one point during the service, a young woman who is also well-known in our congregation, and I believe known to be a very spiritually-hearted believer, made her way over to the man and sat down beside him to pray for him. Before long her voice raised to a volume such that everyone stopped to listen. At first with words unintelligible, then progressing to intelligible words expressing (as I recall) things such as “God is faithful,” “It is already done,” and “God is worthy.” During this time of praying and wailing, the man and young woman were embracing each other in a holy way.

After she expressed her heart in this way for three or four minutes, during which time the pastor stood and oversaw the situation, the pastor thanked and praised the Lord that He was at work, then proceeding to the rest of the planned service.

I have sought to understand what meaning we may take away from this experience. There is nothing about it that I feel was inappropriate. What I am thinking at this time is that the sadness and grieving which this young woman felt was a reflection of, if not an expression on behalf of, the Holy Spirit. God is by no means powerless to heal the man’s cancer. I pray that He will. But whatever God chooses to do, He is grieved by sin, suffering, sickness, and death.

Perhaps what we experienced on Sunday was similar to Jesus hearing that his friend Lazarus had died and weeping over the news–weeping over the sadness that it caused Mary and Martha. (Jn. 11:35)

Over these past weeks I have had a heavy heart over the Ebola plague in west Africa.  I have felt nauseous and helpless at the beheadings by radicals in the Middle East. Who can fix these mega-problems? Somehow, the crying woman in our church helps me. God is terribly sad at sin and disease. In the heavenly places, the Spirit and the angels watch with disgust. Does this mean that God is helpless to heal and deliver? No, but these sufferings are evidences of our race and planet fallen into the grip of sin.

I believe God’s anger at these evils is accumulating. My recent re-reading of the book of Revelation has reminded me that God is hopping mad at evil-doers. He sees what the enemy is doing to people. And the wrath of God is being stored up for a judgment on evil that will literally destroy the world as we know it. The powers that have a heyday now will fall under the crushing judgment of God. And God will make all things new, and peace and health will reign supreme forever. This is the promise of God’s Word. And because the promise is waiting fulfillment, we are called to share in the weeping of the Spirit.

I think the woman who wept in our church embodied the Holy Spirit’s grief at sin, sickness and death.

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The lay person’s explanation of a “fractal” given by wikipedia is:

fractal is a natural phenomenon or a mathematical set that exhibits a repeating pattern that displays at every scale. If the replication is exactly the same at every scale, it is called a self-similar pattern.Fractals can also be nearly the same at different levels.  Fractals also includes the idea of a detailed pattern that repeats itself. (accessed on July 25, 2014)

Here is an example of a simple fractal made of circles which are “nested” in an orderly pattern.

(source: miqel.com)

There is some very complex mathematics which explore the design of fractals.

But what intrigues me about fractals is that we see them appearing all throughout God’s creative work.

Let me show you some examples.

Note the repeated pattern in this fern.

(source: maxresdefault)

Fractals form the design of many of our foods, such as cabbage, lettuce — any leafy vegetable. Can you think of other foods that have fractals as their structure?

This picture is of Romanesco -a cross between broccoli and Cauliflower.

Let’s look under water for fractals. They are abundant! Here are some sea shells (source: webecoist).

And here is a graphic depiction of seaweed and coral.

Now look to what God has put in the heavens. Looking down on cloud formations,we see natural fractals forming.

Even lightning, when caught in the act, shows the branching effect of fractals.

Whirlpool Galaxy (source: Hubblesite)

Have you ever flown over a scene like this. Look how the tributaries form like a huge leaf.

GOD ESTABLISHES ORDERLY PATTERNS. He is a God of design.

In establishing principles of mathematics.
In that which He created in space, in plants, in the sea.

But I have discovered a spiritual fractal that, I believe, God has designed for the growth of every one of His children.

The original is found in the core work of Jesus Christ, and it is replicated in every one of us who follow Jesus.

The fractal is sometimes very small– as in the thought of a moment, or a decision we must make.

Or it may be the design of an entire day, or year, or decade.

It is a phenomenon that, like a fractal, exhibits a repeating pattern that  displays at any scale. Only it is not natural. It is transforming.

What is the pattern?

It is Surrender, Death, Burial, and Resurrection

SURRENDER — a Gethsemane-like experience where our desire confronts the will of God and, if we are to move forward, we must surrender our desire to His.

DEATH–a Golgotha-like experience where that which we have surrendered must be put to death.

BURIAL–a Tomb-like experience where that which we have put to death leads to grieving, loss, waiting, while maintaining hope.

RESURRECTION–a God-given outcome which gives greater manifestation of the living Christ in and through us.

I believe you will recognize this design as the core of what the Apostle Paul called the gospel:

“Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you… by which also you are saved…For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ DIED for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was BURIED, and that He was RAISED on the third day according to the Scriptures.” (1 Corinthians 15:1-4, NASB, emphasis mine)

If you begin looking for this gospel fractal in Scripture, you will discover it in many places (especially the New Testament).

And if you begin looking for it in your life experiences, whether big or small, you will see its design in all the trials which have caused you to mature, and in all the commitments which you have made to Christ.

This repeating pattern, though often difficult, has changed you for the good. For it is in God’s beautiful design of the gospel fractal that you are transformed into the likeness of the Original.

In God’s design of the gospel fractal, you are transformed into the likeness of the Original.

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