My friend and former seminary professor Tom Long once told a story about one of his colleagues on the faculty of Princeton Theological Seminary. This colleague volunteered with the youth group of his church, and was teaching a Bible study one evening. The story goes that there was a student there than evening who was disengaged, surly, and seemingly ignoring what was going on while disrupting the group study by slapping the miniblinds on one of the windows.
This professor was talking about the passage above, explaining that the word translated “opened” has roots that give birth to our word “schizophrenic.” “So this means there is a tear in heaven,” the professor said.
“Naw, that’s not what it means,” the antisocial student said.
The professor confessed that, feeling arrogant and a bit passive, he asked the young fellow what it meant.
The student stopped hitting the blinds, turned and looked at the professor, and said, “It means God is loose in the world.”
Almost speechless, the professor had to admit the young man was right.