Fury for a Purpose

Puritans such as Jonathan Edwards suggested that the highest purpose of all of creation is to point us to spiritual realities. We can see this clearly in Jesus’ use of nature in so many of his parables and teachings (John 15:1-12, Matthew 13:3-9, etc.) Often, the lens of nature is used to point us to the beauty, grandeur and glories of God and His kindnesses to us, but the darker realities of nature can prove helpful as well – reminding us of the price of our sin and the just wrath of God. Edwards’ oft-caricatured Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (1741) masterfully wields nature to this end, warning the unrepentant sinner in vivid detail that caused many listeners in the Enfield, CT congregation to swoon and faint:

“The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked. His wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire. He is of purer eyes than to bear you in his sight; you are ten thousand times as abominable in his eyes as the most hateful, venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince, and yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment.”

Such language has largely left the coffers of our American pulpits – deemed too harsh and derisively labeled as “Fire and Brimstone”. To be fair, even Edwards, himself used such imagery sparingly, favoring to declare the excellencies of Christ in far more abundance than such dread warnings. Yet, even in this dark portrayal of the precarious spider, note the overarching picture of God’s longsuffering grace and kindness. What we each deserve is Hell, and we deserve it from birth, yet God blesses us day in and day out with breath and heartbeat, on top of more blessings that we could ever count. We deserve judgment, yet we receive merciful grace!

This series of images reminds me of that reality. These images were captured on a warm and muggy August evening, as a line of severe storms rolled through Northeast Florida. Admittedly, I find myself drawn to weather like this. The stark beauty and sense of danger – the dynamic progression of a storm moving through in all it’s fury – I find it utterly captivating. It strikes me, that even with the danger and death that these storms can often produce, with them comes nourishing rains and beautiful scenes – grace in the darkness; beauty in the fury…

“Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?”

Romans 2:4, NASB 1995

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