Pictures Of God
I recently noticed that I tend to keep this image of God in my head. Anytime I have a sin for which I have not repented, I briefly worry that God will send somebody to prophecy over me, revealing my sin and demanding my repentance. He'll just uncover my deeply hidden sin and let someone call me on it.
I don't really think that this is God's usual gameplan, nor do I think that he is a particularly judgmental guy that just wants to crush people. I know that God loves me, I know that Jesus died for me, I know that sin hurts him and it hurts me, and I know that God just wants what is best for me.
And yet, the very fact that this minor concern pops into my head may indicate something about my view of God. Why would such a dramatic image have stuck with me for all of these years? Usually it doesn't have any real effect on me, other than to remind me that I do need to repent. I usually dismiss that condemnation and guilt and instead try to come back to God honestly and ask for real forgiveness.
What about you? Do you have any images or worries or ideas that define your view of God? Do you innately assume that God shares a lot of characteristics with your biological father? Do you interpret life through a coloured lens of who God is to you? Sometimes these things are not obvious, like this subtle fear I have that keeps cropping up. Sometimes it's a more obvious thing, where we directly claim that God is a jerk or whatever.
So what is your picture of God?
4 comments:
I picture an infinite strand of pearls, each person being a pearl, all of us together being a part of god experiencing different things bringing those experiences together as one so this 'all" (god") experiences everything through us as a piece of his flesh - make sense?
you were spanked when you were younger, weren't you?
haha, jk.
i see God as a daddy. not a father. a daddy. maybe a daddo :)
As a matter of fact, I was spanked as a child...though not as much as my brother was. Sucker!
If this one picture of mine reveals my image of a judgmental God, I wonder what other images other people have?
Like, do some girls believe that they're truly beautiful and absolutely beloved by God? Do some guys know that they are valuable and they don't have to try so hard to please God? Maybe some people see God as a perfectionist and they refuse to try new things because they might fail and disappoint him. Maybe some refuse to be intimate with God because he might hurt them when they're vulnerable.
Like I said, some of our pictures of God may be clear but sometimes it's just fleeting thoughts and we don't realize how deeply we believe these lies...about ourselves, about our parents and about God.
Long black hair, oversized fake designer sun-glasses, ugg boots, c-cup, giant purse with a tiny dog in it.
My God would fit in perfectly at Western. Oh yeah, and God the Father is genderless, so I'm going with a female image today. Tommorrow I'm thinking more of a prep-meets-emo dude look.
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