What does God look like, or how do you imagine God to be when you pray or think about God. A parent? A king? Or something else? Is the way you picture God in your mind the way you want to see God, or are you striving for a different understanding to take form when you pray?
Safe
ReplyDeleteI lay in the hand that holds.
There is no fear.
There is no pain.
There is only rest
and peace
and a quiet that is full.
I lay in the hand
that will hold me forever
and somehow
that is enough
Pastor Larry Morris
you are a blessing bringing it.
Deleteronaldo
This is beautiful, Pr. Larry. Well done : )
DeleteMy View of God
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a very little girl I learned about God and the President of the United States all on the same day, and for a long, long time I had them mixed up. I thought God looked like President Roosevelt, and the image remained in the back of my mind until, many years later, in his fourth term, President Roosevelt died and I had to find a new image.
By this time I was more grow up and into science fiction. I wondered if the earth might not be a corpuscle in the blood stream of the giant God. But this didn't fit with the things I was learning in my catechism classes.
I was made in the image of God, so He must look something like me, only Grander - Mightier. Because He was always called He in the Bible He must be a man. The images of God in art seemed to confirm this. God looked like a powerful, angry old man.
Time passed and I grew up and grew older and experienced responsibility and pain, and felt God rather than pictured him. He was Love, Second Chances, Miracles, Always There, Teacher, Forgiving, but reminding me that I needed to be Forgiving too, and all the other things He had demonstrated to me in my life.
So now my picture of God is not of a person like me but a combination of all the things I had learned He is through living.
Actually I am looking forward to seeing what He really does look like!
Clarene Aitken
13.3.14
wisdom from an elder sister. thank you.
Deleteronaldo
God, A Profile
ReplyDelete[Divinum Mysterium]
Holy One from before ages come; Ground of Being before all time,
Sacred Mid-wife of all that is, Loving Source of grace sublime.
Co-Creator ever faithful, Holding all within Your care,
Evermore and evermore!
Before time was, You held all, Compassion at the core,
Fearless doubt a major resource, Maker’s love for all to adore.
Every stitch in this fine tapestry, marv’lous joy and wonder,
Evermore and evermore!
Word Made Flesh, uncommon Savior, Opened wounds to pay the price,
Gathered folks into your loving arms, matters not, naughty or nice.
Holy Brother claiming family, Promise true beyond time,
Evermore and evermore!
Wisdom wondrous, Loving Holy Touch, Summoner of all joy,
Breath of All inspire our hearts, Bring justice, peace our work employ.
Help our minds and spirits join, bless our universe You’ve made,
Evermore and evermore!
All around we find Your presence, Calm our souls so that we see,
Bring us into kindly neighbor care, servant-hood our true unity.
May this day be ever blessed, since you are its vital core,
Evermore and evermore!
The Rev. Ronald Allen Melver, M.Div.
13.3.14
I would love to sing this one as a hymn! Seems inspired by a the spirit of a shepherd boy named David ; )
DeleteSeeing God
ReplyDeleteI don't see a human image of God--more like a super brilliant sun and an invisible presence felt. Yet, in all of nature, human kindness, smiles, laughter and people's faces, I see evidence that the Spirit has been through and left footprints which tell me God is much more than I can imagine. When younger, I prayed as if I was reaching out toward the heavens, but now feel God is in the room. That said, I sometimes forget that when I'm wrapped up in my cloak of worry and co-dependency.
Marlene Obie
How I see God in my mind’s eye and how I want to come to know God are two different things. Picturing God is merely an aid to focus my distracted or proscribed prayers. The truth? Though I know in my heart that God is beyond gender, despite my effort to always use inclusive language when speaking about God, God looks like a dude in my mind’s eye. A white dude at that, which is totally contrary to my personal theology.
ReplyDeleteI thought further about this image and realized that God is actually a combination of three very formative men in my life (sorry to the real, actual formative men in my life!) My picture of God is a combination of John Lennon (creativity), Michael Landon (paternal patience), and Mr. Rogers (he knows inside my heart). However, I long to get to the point where my rote picture that has been nurtured into my eyes by the spiritual influences I’ve had (pictures, books, other people’s ideas) can be joined with the picture I know to be true without eyes. The truth that I can feel rather than see. I feel God as part of me. Not the gender part, but like I am a drop of the biggest sea of everyone and everything that ever was or will be. I am a clear piece of soul that makes up the hem of a robe, so to speak. A part of the liquid kaleidoscope which are the faces of God.