WATCHWORD:
4 what are mere mortals that you should think about them,
human beings that you should care for them?
5 Yet you made them only a little lower than God
and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You gave them charge of everything you made,
putting all things under their authority —
7 the flocks and the herds
and all the wild animals,
8 the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea,
and everything that swims the ocean currents. Psalm 8:4-8
Meditation:
Modeling God in Our Image
Prairie, two miles southwest of Hulett, Wyoming. It’s 10:30 at night, not a light in sight. I lean back in a borrowed camp chair I brought from my hotel, and stare at an amazing sky, an array of stars so bright and so full, that it forces thoughts of gratitude and praise to the creator God. A show so perfect that the intrusion of an airplane, some 30,000 feet above, seems an offense. I speak aloud my gratitude and join the sounds of nature calling.
We are just beginning to grasp the vastness of the universe. The universe is so huge that it defies our limited language. And to think that this was all created by God, defies even more the point where we have a hard time imagining. And then, to imagine further, here we are, a speck of dust. No, a freckle on the speck. No, a half of a freckle on a speck of dust of the universe. That’s us. Hard to imagine, right?
That’s where we start and then we get into further trouble because we take the next step, saying, a God that is so incredibly large and vast, and perfect that we can’t even imagine it, and, yet, we imagine the deity caring about us! Certainly, not a detailed interest in every single human life, which is the centerpiece of every Christian religion. How can that possibly be? But it is! He cares, or she cares for me!
Is it any wonder that the thoughtful person, truly seeking a relationship with God Almighty, seeking the peace promised, has become disenchanted with organized religion, and what they are “selling.” We are told that humans have been created in the image of God, but if you look carefully, you might come to the conclusion that this God that churches are putting forth, seems suspiciously like humans. How about that – modeling god in our own image? Sacrilege!
I am a human. You are a human, and we share a human problem. We cannot imagine a God so vast and yet he has an interest in us. Note the phrase, ‘we cannot imagine’. Our minds are limited. We are incapable of the grasping the idea of a terrifying vastness, on one hand, and of minute attention to microscopic detail at the same time. But our limitations in no way proves that God is incapable of fulfilling both of these ideas. That’s where the synapses in our brains brings us to a screeching halt.
I think it is at this point that man takes a step in the absolutely wrong direction. Man may be made in the image of God; but it is not sufficient to conceive of God as nothing more than an infinitely magnified man. One needs only to call to mind the sky at night to be reminded we have a benevolent God, not a physical man to the nth degree.
I think we deceive ourselves as we try to describe God. Our vocabulary is limited, and the only models we have are human models. Such a god of our own creation will not work for us. We need God with the capacity to hold, in a manner of speaking, both Big and Small in his mind at the same time. Which may only be the starting point of understanding our Creator God.
But, in the midst of all of this confusion and competition, and smoke and mirrors, and magic, the worship of God Almighty is within. We go beyond our imaginations, into trust, faith and belief. It’s a personal relationship to our Creator God, a relationship that, to the discerning, is a real conversation between the human and the Holy Spirit within, which is God. God be the glory. Amen.
Closing Prayer:
Dear Heavenly Father, when we look at the night sky, see fields of wildflowers, hear the giggle of a child, we are awed by the diversity and the beauty of what you have created. When we see the moon and the stars that you set in place, what are we mere mortals that you should think about us, that you should care about us, that you should gift us with your amazing graces. We know Lord that in all of these wonderful graces the greatest one, yet, is that you love us, and we are your children. That alone brings tears of joy to our eyes, that you, the Creator of the Universe, should love even me. Amen
