Lashed to Images

Myself and a friend of mine, who happens to be currently residing in New Zealand for the next 6 months or so, were discussing the characteristics of God and how difficult it is sometimes to latch onto one particular aspect of God’s nature. For instance, my friend was saying how they understand and can accept God’s love in general, but they struggled with the image of God loving us as a father. Now, at the outset there doesn’t seem to be much difference between the two, and, ultimately, there isn’t any difference. God is God regardless of the images we project onto Him. But, I understand what my friend was getting at. If you have had a poor example for an earthly father, who, consequently, should be a reflection of God as Father, then you would struggle mightily with the image of God as a loving dad. I realized that at different points in my life I tend to lash myself to certain images of God, ones that speak to me at that moment in my life. God as Father, as Redeemer, as Healer, as Comforter, etc. It is our human nature to desire images for our hearts and minds to cling to. I can understand the God as Father image and cling to it, because my father is a loving part of my life. There are times when I feel wounded, broken and beaten down. At those moments I hold fast to God as Healer.

Here’s the point: whatever image we gravitate towards at particular moments in our life we are still gravitating towards God. Yes, some images are hard for us to receive, but, nonetheless we are still holding fast to God. Period.

shalom, matt