Shake..

"Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens." (Heb 12:26b)

Now, its quite easy to imagine the Earth being shaken. It happens regularly even in Earthquakes! (=p) The world is shaken by a certain news (say, 911). Whatever the verse meant by shake, I think people can quite easily accept it. But the heavens... Thats another thing altogether, how do you shake the Heavens? Isn't Heaven about the most perfect place you can ever think about?

When we meet Christ, he will shake all our principles. First, He will shake the basest principles (perhaps, having security in possessions, our own desires...) He shakes the Earth. And we all quite accept that. We know that it is a change for the better. Perhaps we battle it, but our conscience itself testify that it is right.

But I don't think it stops there. He shakes even our highest principles. He challenges our desire for Peace. He challenges our Love even (think about one who needs to choose between God and his say, parents. Love for the family is good, but it too has to be sacrificed). He challenges our Ministry. He challenges our giving... He shakes the Heavens...

This is a trait of Christianity.. God doesn't want to Improve your desires, He asks for it and kills it. The whole talk was never about improving. Seriously. It is not about making better people. It had always been a talk about rebirth. A New Creation. Its not like modifying the features of a statue, its like making a statue come alive and become like a man. It talks about the death of a seed - and it rising up again as a tree. It talks about dying with Christ. It talks about being born of Spirit and Water.

Strange idea. One that... we don't really notice very often do we? Perhaps thats why we hardly think about sacrificing our higher ideas..

But of course, the highest ideas when it is sacrificed, will give birth to a even greater thing..

Shaking the heavens and the earth, such that only the unshakable will remain...

------------

Okay, I admit I break tradition here by reading meaning into it that was probably not in the author's mind. As in, I don't think the author was thinking about principles when he wrote about shaking of the heavens and the earth. Rather, he was probably thinking of the literal heaven and the earth. Actually, this idea came about in a conversation with a friend, and in the conversation, where I went ahead of myself, I put this idea in. But after thinking through.. Though it is not from this portion of scripture, it was where this idea started from... So.. yups :)