Lenten Writing Project Reboot 2020! Writers' Reflections in the Wilderness of Lent
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
#7 Gazing At God Through Mottled Glass
Lenten Writing Prompt #7 Write about a way that you visualize God that helps you focus your thoughts and prayer. Sophia/Wisdom? The traditional God on a cloud? A Creatrix?
A Parent? Write about the face that God shares with you.
The Mysticism of Fingers- I keep thinking about fingers, and how amazing it is to watch someone learn something new. As I think about the complexity of the process of dexterity, I see it as part of a much larger web of design and purpose. In learning a new piece of music on the guitar or trying to use a new kind of tool, I am part of an imminent and continual expression of God. I am kenotic by nature and look for God in his creation. But rather than finding it in a great vista in a passive way, here it is revealed in fingers that are reaching out to learn something that had been passed on by others. God’s mind and expression are not only something we look at like a painting, or admire in church. It can be activity we share and become part of. If we were not gifted with understanding, then it might be said that we were only made for God’s enjoyment, even entertainment. But we are given understanding, and that binds us both with the creation and the creator in a process that extends through time. Doug Millar
The beauty of the Christian faith and the key tenet that has held me here through the most turbulent storms is that God became human. This is the God to whom I speak, cry, lash out.
Thirty three years of life on earth as someone's child, brother, cousin, playmate, friend, love interest, student, colleague, neighbor, teacher. Carefree fun-loving child, studious adolescent, awkward teenager, faithful young man, child of God. He must understand, right?
So when I ask my questions, I'm asking them to someone who's lived it all - someone who I assume has asked many of the same questions; has felt betrayed, hurt, loss, grief; has doubted his purpose; has asked God to take it away.
This is the God, as our pastor says, who walks into the deep, dark places with us, with me.
The Mysticism of Fingers-
ReplyDeleteI keep thinking about fingers, and how amazing it is to watch someone learn something new. As I think about the complexity of the process of dexterity, I see it as part of a much larger web of design and purpose. In learning a new piece of music on the guitar or trying to use a new kind of tool, I am part of an imminent and continual expression of God. I am kenotic by nature and look for God in his creation. But rather than finding it in a great vista in a passive way, here it is revealed in fingers that are reaching out to learn something that had been passed on by others. God’s mind and expression are not only something we look at like a painting, or admire in church. It can be activity we share and become part of. If we were not gifted with understanding, then it might be said that we were only made for God’s enjoyment, even entertainment. But we are given understanding, and that binds us both with the creation and the creator in a process that extends through time. Doug Millar
The beauty of the Christian faith and the key tenet that has held me here through the most turbulent storms is that God became human. This is the God to whom I speak, cry, lash out.
ReplyDeleteThirty three years of life on earth as someone's child, brother, cousin, playmate, friend, love interest, student, colleague, neighbor, teacher. Carefree fun-loving child, studious adolescent, awkward teenager, faithful young man, child of God. He must understand, right?
So when I ask my questions, I'm asking them to someone who's lived it all - someone who I assume has asked many of the same questions; has felt betrayed, hurt, loss, grief; has doubted his purpose; has asked God to take it away.
This is the God, as our pastor says, who walks into the deep, dark places with us, with me.