Christ plays...

“God—who is establishing us in Christ, has anointed us"  (2Corinthians 1:20).

Paul loved paradoxes: "When I am weak, I am strong.” And puns: “God—who is establishing us in Christ (the anointed) has 'Christed’ (anointed) us.”  

Thus...

Christ plays in ten thousand places, 

Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his 

To the Father through the features of men's faces" (G.M. Hopkins).

We are "Christs"—manifesting his beauty in arms that hug, eyes that crinkle and smile with compassion, faces that are as love-filled as his, feet that carry the good news of God’s love to the weary and heavy–laden. In this way Christ “plays” in ten thousand places, in gentle influence wherever his children go, a witness to goodness, truth and beauty that cannot be ignored. As Paul himself wrote, “I live, yet not I; but Christ lives in me.” 

May Christ so “play" in you and me.

David Roper

10.14.18