The Situation Room

I’ve always wanted a fireman’s pole in my house. How cool would that be? I’ve even thought of the perfect place to put it—behind my closet door in my bedroom. We have a little bit of money put away to finish our basement and I’ve been trying to convince my husband to incorporate my vision: my fireman’s pole would lead to a secret room that only him and I know about. As the kids are getting older, the basement will provide a great space for them to invite their friend’s and hangout. But I don’t really trust teenagers. Wouldn’t it be great to have a little spy center set up with the technology to keep us one step ahead? Wouldn’t it also be great to have a room where we can actually be unbothered? Early in our marriage, when we were still very naïve, we thought that was what the master bedroom was for. Whatever. The kids LOVE to hang out in our bedroom every chance they get. And Matt and I have been pretty good about trying to keep them the heck out of there. But I digress. And I still haven’t convinced Matt to put in the fireman’s pole. A little while ago, while I was on my way to my sister’s house, there was a news clip on the radio about president Obama gathering intelligence and watching the raid on Osama Bin Laden. The reporter was disclosing part of the discussion going on in “the situation room” of the white house. A light bulb went off. That’s what I need in my house! A situation room! Maybe now that I have a name, I can convince my husband! For like the last two months, I’ve been contemplating the advantages of having one of these babies. “You want to go to the movies tonight? How many people are going? Did you say Keegan was going? Hmmm, let me think about it.” Off to the situation room to sort this one out… If only I could have a team for intelligence management to go along with it. That’s where we would decide to let her go, but send a secret ninja spy that would keep me updated through the situation room. Okay, maybe it is best if I don’t get my wishes… I actually am working on a spiritual illustration here. Really, I am. I want to talk about a real intelligence on a people who weren’t even created yet. I want to talk about command and control rooted in relationship and love: the covenant of redemption. Our triune God doesn’t need a situation room. He is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. He is Lord of the situation. He is the situation. Before time, in eternity, The triune God made a promise between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved (Eph. 1:3-6). The situation is that God the Father has lovingly given Christ a bride. In this intratrinitarian covenant, Christ the Son has accepted this gift, along with the conditions of redeeming his bride, and the Holy Spirit has also agreed to apply the Son’s work to his bride. Think about the perfect love that exists between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They made an oath to share that blessedness with us at the greatest personal cost. They made this covenant knowing that we were going to be covenant-breakers, in enmity against God. But Christ came down to us in his incarnation. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). He fulfilled the sanctions of the covenant on our behalf. I am assured of my inheritance in Christ because he is the covenant-keeper. He has delivered on his promise, and is sitting at the right hand of the Father, Lord of the situation.