Picture God in your mind…
If you’re like most of the people I’ve asked, you probably thought of some combination of a man in a gray beard floating on a throne in the clouds or a scowling judge glaring down from his judgment bench. Both are totally wrong. God has a presence in the world today, and how we see Him will determines how we see ourselves and how we see others.
Before we can establish how to see God today we need to explore how he was seen in the past. Bible accounts paint a picture of a God who made himself visibly present; initially for His benefit an eventually for ours.
“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day….” (Gen 3:8 NIV). I love to imagine what it was like in the garden of God when He physically walked among and enjoyed the beauty of his creation. To think about enjoying the presence of my creator in the unsurpassed beauty of his newly created earth is overwhelming to me.
In the garden that day Adam and Eve could not be found because they were hiding from God. They knew they had disobeyed and were ashamed of themselves and their appearance. This was the moment that separated us from God, but also set into motion a plan to redeem his creation and reestablish the perfection of His dwelling place. From that moment on God manifested Himself in various forms.
Every Sunday my family participates in a worship service at our community’s nursing home. On most Sunday’s we shake hands, hug necks, sing for the residents and listen to a message from the Word. On one particular Sunday morning I received so much more.
As I was preparing for the service an older lady wheeled herself towards me by carefully walking her feet in front of her chair. As I approached her with my best Sunday morning “glad to see ya” attitude she grabbed my arm, pulled it to her face and slowly pet me. She pulled me down close to her face and asked, “Is your name Scott?”
“No ma’am, my name is Greg. That’s Scott over there” I replied.
She continued, “This morning I let the cows and the dogs out into the pasture and they are trampling everything down in the field.”
Realizing her consciousness was based in a reality from years past, I mumbled faux words of agreement and encouragement. I was playing along to enhance her reality but beginning to pull away when she grabbed my arm again and said, “Is your name Robert?”
“No ma’am, my name is Greg.”
“Are you my son?”
“No ma’am,” I gulped, realizing engaging in further deception would likely lead to hurt. She continued with a new story about setting a match to the pasture and burning all of the trash, I didn’t catch the details being distracted by the mission of extracting myself from the situation saying something like “Ok, I understand, have a good day” while patting her gently on the back.
As I was walking away she called to me, cupping her hands around her mouth and calling in a loud whisper that came out like a fained yell “Hey, I love you.”
In a moment, my heart was broken.
Throughout the service I fixed my eyes on the precious sister and thought:
- Even when everything else is failing, Love is still present.
- My love had been superficial, based on my comfort and reality – not on hers.
Peter wrote about the love Christ intended for believers, “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart” I Peter 1:22 (TNIV). The message is clear, Christians are purified by the blood of Christ and obedient faith in order to love each other so deeply, it never leaves regardless of the condition.
Later in his letter Peter continues, “… all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.” I Peter 3:8 (TNIV). Like he was writing these words directly to me I know my love in those moments was neither empathetic (like-minded), sympathetic, compassionate, or humble. Rather is was based on MY feelings, MY reality, and compassion for MY comfort – not humble at all. I suspect most Christians struggle to develop the kind of love Christ commanded when he answered the teacher of the law who asked him about the most important commandment:
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:29-31 (TNIV)
Love God (check), love myself (check), love others (well…). Even though her mind was tricking her consciousness, the elder sister taught me two valuable lessons:
- Love deeply to the very end
- Love others as they are, not as I am
Spreading the gospel on Twitter? Use these suggested Christian tweets related to this article:
- Even when everything else is failing, Love is still present http://ow.ly/rjrL
- Love deeply to the very end and love others as THEY are not as I am http://ow.ly/rjrL
- The elder sister cupped her hands and called in a loud whisper like a fained yell “Hey, I love you.” http://ow.ly/rjrL
- … all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble http://ow.ly/rjrL
- Christians are purified by the blood of Christ and our obedient faith in order to love each other deeply http://ow.ly/rjrL
- …you have purified yourselves…so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart http://ow.ly/rjrL
Down where we live it doesn’t snow much. When it does, we love it, well, most of us. The kids hope with the snow comes a snow day away from school. Most folks never lose their wonder at snow’s beauty and its nature of covering the most unsightly sights. Even a junkyard takes on a beauty not its own when snow falls and covers the old cars. Snow! Snow is a transformer of the ugly to the beautiful.
Lewis Carroll had Alice in “Through the Looking Glass” describe snow to her kitty this way.
“Do you hear the snow against the windowpanes, Kitty? How nice and soft it sounds! Just as if someone was kissing the window all over outside. I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, and that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, ’Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.’ And when they wake up in the summer, Kitty, they dress themselves all in green, and dance about – whenever the wind blows – oh, that’s very pretty!” cried Alice, dropping the ball of worsted to clap her hands. “And I do so wish it was true! I’m sure the woods look sleepy in the autumn, when the leaves are getting brown.”
We often describe our Christian life as a daily walk, which is an enduring example of how we dedicate every moment of every day to Christ. The good news is we walk in the light near to God which gives a guiding light and illuminates a Spiritual path to the comfort of eternal life. To discover the true depth of this good news we need to focus on things to come. In Revelation the new heaven and the new earth are described by John:
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”….And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. Revelation 21:1, 21:3, 21:23-27 (TNIV)
For believers it’s almost overwhelming to think of the day we can walk in the light of the Lord. BUT WE ALREADY ARE!
One day long ago, my buddy and I decided to drive his old car across a dry creek bed. A fun idea turned out to be a bad idea. Half way over, we sunk deep in the gravel. Everything we tried to get unstuck did not work. Idea after idea failed. Our “horse” was stuck, for sure and for certain. Evening was coming on and our options were walking home or going to someone’s house and calling home. In those days there were no cell phones. Both plans were not acceptable to a couple of enterprising fellows like us. Either option spelled defeat. Of course, we were, in fact, completely defeated. By now my mom, who kept close tabs on me, even though I considered that not needful, had dispatched my dad to check on the whereabouts of her number one and only son. And there he was, in his company car, coming over the hill with the radio antenna whipping in the wind. My hero, then and now, and always will be. “What are you boys doing,” he asked. We replied as manly as we could, “We’ve tried everything and we can’t get unstuck.” He didn’t laugh or even chastise us for what we had done as I recall. He had a way of teaching without saying one word. He simply said, “Take some air out of the tires”. We did and Ronny drove out easily. Ronny and I learned a big lesson that day, and it was more than how to get a stuck car out of a creek.
Do you like to read? I do and I know you probably like to also, most people do. Also do you occasionally overhear a conversation about the latest best selling author’s current work? Notice the adjective, current. An author as well as anyone else’s fame is fleeting and only a few great names such as Shakespeare or Milton are generally known.The Greatest Author wrote the Greatest Book ever written. Sadly many have never read His book or even picked it up for a cursory examination. In that book lie the secrets to mankind’s beginning, present and future. It describes the path from here to eternity. Isn’t that exciting? The Bible is the “code” from the Master of the Universe for a better life here and a far better one to come.
Can you imagine stumbling upon a great treasure of an ancient king? And yet, here at our fingertips is a priceless gem, far more valuable than the riches of any king who ever lived. And it can be bought for a small price. My favorite Bible is one I bought at a garage sale for twenty-five cents. Think of that! The priceless Word of God for twenty-five cents! You may have a favorite copy of the road map to Paradise, I pray so, and perhaps you paid more than twenty five cents for it. Whatever you paid, read it, love it, live it.
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12
Lou David Allen graduated from Abilene Christian University with a BS in Physics in 1962 and a MBA in 1976. He worked for NASA on the Apollo Moon Project in Houston, TX. His area of expertise is heat transfer especially related to space simulation systems. He was a junior college administrator and teacher for 21 years and was the mayor of Merkel, TX for eight. He now works as a salesman for a company he and his wife Rhoda own. Rhoda and David have been married forty-seven years. They are happy.
