So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. Just as the Father has sent me, I also send you.” And after he said this, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” (John 20:21, 22)
So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living person”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. (1 Corinthians 15:45)
I turned 360 degrees, analyzing each piece in the modern and contemporary pavilion of the Seattle Art Museum. Above me, cars tumbled through the air. Beside me, boxes of breakfast cereal rested on silk inside a glass case. All around, thought fragments were regurgitated onto canvas, then hung under lights for examination.
Art touches our emotions, and the effect that room had on my feelings was shock. I was shocked at how easily I identified with chaos, and sickened that we put a frame around our fractured reality and extol it. It didn’t matter that the collection was housed in a bedazzling skyscraper, or that the expenses were underwritten by the richest man on the planet (Gates). It was a brazen display of mankind’s brokenness, and without a remedy in sight.
No human or institution can return what we've forfeited since Eden. Neither government reforms, nor technological breakthroughs, nor any amount of money can heal our planet. Only Jesus can do that.
The first Adam received life when God breathed into him—now the last Adam breathes a second chance at life into us. Jesus breathes out, and I breathe in. When we both do our part, peace floods my squirming mind. I know why I’m here. I’m ready to be sent.
The choice is remade with each new day. I can join the world’s homage of our dysfunction, or inhale the breath, words, and life of Jesus. What about today?
Prayer: Spirit of Jesus, breathe your cure into me.¯