The Face of God
At the end of the film 24 Hour Party People, God appears to Tony Wilson (Steve Coogan) and tells him he did a good job, pity he didn't sign The Smiths. (God has excellent taste in music.) Someone asks Tony what God looked like. He answers, "He looked like me." The explanation being that since we're all made in the image of God, how he looks depends on who he appears to.
It's a good thing to remember, that idea. We are all created in the image of God, and God is so big we cannot ever imagine we could encompass him in our mind. All the people of the world is a good reminder of that fact. They are all the face of God, as are you and I. The world is filled with reminders of God's presence. Thomas Merton called them "seeds of contemplation", but observed that we are often too preoccupied with ourselves to notice them.
We can easily forget the presence of the divine in our lives. Disappointment with God, pressures of the day, an over-intellectualisation of faith, all manner of things can take us from our quest for more of God. Sometimes we can even believe that we have God sussed out, and that's especially dangerous, for a God we can understand is likely an idol of our own making. After all, God said "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways." (Isaiah 55:8) But throughout creation we have continual reminders of His Glory, His Power, His Immensity and His Love of us.
I remember in Sunday School being told about Rainbows. Sure they're pretty, but how often do we think of them now as God's covenant with us? Does it matter if you believe in the Flood or not? Maybe, I don't know. I don't know how much I believe in the Flood, but I do know that when I see a Rainbow I am reminded that God is powerful, and that He loves me.
When I see all the faces in the world, I am reminded that I can never understand God. Because if we all bear the face of God, and I know there's no way I'll ever know or understand everyone in the world, how much more difficult would it be to understand God Himself? He is too big, too varied and too different from me to be understood. I struggle to understand myself half the time, let alone try and nail down God into some kind of safe little package I can hold like a talisman over the life I would choose to lead. Instead, I try to think of the world as his temple, peopled with his image, and though I'm left with no answers, I feel my faith is stronger for that. Faith in something defined requires no faith at all. You already know the answer. But to trust God in his unknowable power, there is faith.
As the Bonnie 'Prince' Billy song goes, "And then I see a darkness". God is unknowable, and the darkness is him. It is terrifying, but God loves us, so no matter what, I trust. I cannot see, cannot understand. Every step taken is a step of trust, hoping I'm doing the right thing, believing that if I'm not he can make right my mistakes, always growing stronger in faith in him by walking in that darkness. And always around me are the signs of his presence, reassuring me that he is there.
As it says in Proverbs 3:5, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding."
It's a good thing to remember, that idea. We are all created in the image of God, and God is so big we cannot ever imagine we could encompass him in our mind. All the people of the world is a good reminder of that fact. They are all the face of God, as are you and I. The world is filled with reminders of God's presence. Thomas Merton called them "seeds of contemplation", but observed that we are often too preoccupied with ourselves to notice them.
We can easily forget the presence of the divine in our lives. Disappointment with God, pressures of the day, an over-intellectualisation of faith, all manner of things can take us from our quest for more of God. Sometimes we can even believe that we have God sussed out, and that's especially dangerous, for a God we can understand is likely an idol of our own making. After all, God said "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways." (Isaiah 55:8) But throughout creation we have continual reminders of His Glory, His Power, His Immensity and His Love of us.
I remember in Sunday School being told about Rainbows. Sure they're pretty, but how often do we think of them now as God's covenant with us? Does it matter if you believe in the Flood or not? Maybe, I don't know. I don't know how much I believe in the Flood, but I do know that when I see a Rainbow I am reminded that God is powerful, and that He loves me.
When I see all the faces in the world, I am reminded that I can never understand God. Because if we all bear the face of God, and I know there's no way I'll ever know or understand everyone in the world, how much more difficult would it be to understand God Himself? He is too big, too varied and too different from me to be understood. I struggle to understand myself half the time, let alone try and nail down God into some kind of safe little package I can hold like a talisman over the life I would choose to lead. Instead, I try to think of the world as his temple, peopled with his image, and though I'm left with no answers, I feel my faith is stronger for that. Faith in something defined requires no faith at all. You already know the answer. But to trust God in his unknowable power, there is faith.
As the Bonnie 'Prince' Billy song goes, "And then I see a darkness". God is unknowable, and the darkness is him. It is terrifying, but God loves us, so no matter what, I trust. I cannot see, cannot understand. Every step taken is a step of trust, hoping I'm doing the right thing, believing that if I'm not he can make right my mistakes, always growing stronger in faith in him by walking in that darkness. And always around me are the signs of his presence, reassuring me that he is there.
As it says in Proverbs 3:5, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding."
posted by Andrew Lee at 12:36 PM
1 Comments:
Nice post. Seems kind of 'pantheist' to me.
If only more persons of religious persuasion could live, like you do, without needing their God to have a complete resume describing every last aspect of what they think and do.
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