Reactor, part 2

our broken core

In many ways we are like Chernobyl. Our core is broken. Our very existence has a crack. We have melted down and the disaster that has come makes Chernobyl look like a stubbed toe. Sin was introduced in the garden and the core of man, our spirit, was broken. No, our meltdown isn’t something we can blame on technicians or time of day, it comes from sin.

Certainly we can look at Adam and Eve and point fingers, but in the end those fingers will never clean up the mess. Each of us has to deal with the cleanup of that disaster those many years ago. When sin was introduced into creation a meltdown occurred, which in the end, cracked our core.

"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" Romans 3:23

It says it simply enough, and yet the words, if we allow, hardly magnify the extent of the damage. Paul not only shares our broken core, our cracked and decaying reactor, but he explains that creation also carries the burden.

Paul uses the word "groaning as in the pains of childbirth." This is no simple statement, this is pain, unbearable pain. There is a reason that the doctors have the host of machines and medicines available when a woman gives birth. Our world feels such pain, such agony, from the broken core caused by sin. Creation is also in bondage. Creation is subject to frustration and decay, just as man is.

Creation is in bondage and decay, earth is in meltdown, she is broken along with you and I for the same reason: sin. God goes on to explain in detail to man and woman what will come with this new cracked core. He tells of the damage that meltdown brings, and it is not pretty.

Something must be done.

With the statement that all have sinned Paul shares that we are all broken, our core is in need of repair. The destruction that came at Chernobyl on a cold April morning cannot compare with the damage that has been done. Simply turn on the news. Open the history books on the shelf of your home or library. Search on the internet under war and destruction, natural or otherwise.

You will find page after page, photo after photo, image upon image, of a broken world. Of broken people, many are unaware that their core is even damaged, let alone in need of repair. If we only watched the news, if we only looked in the mirror, the destruction in the perfect garden that day would be cause for alarm.

They had a plan at Chernobyl, a fail-safe. Unfortunately it was operated by men, men with a broken core. Aren’t you thankful that our creations operator has no tired technician, no disinterested individuals in safety positions, no one who lacks appreciation for the depth of the situation? Thankfully there is hope for what is broken.