Remembering God.
There was a three-year-old girl who was the only child in her family. Her mom was pregnant, and this three-year-old girl was very excited about having a baby in the house. The day comes when the mother-to-be goes into labour, and the mom and dad go off to the hospital. A couple of days later they come home with a new baby brother. And the little girl is just delighted. But after they’ve been home for a couple of hours, the little girl tells her parents that she wants to be with the baby in the baby’s room, alone, by themselves, with the door shut. She’s absolutely insistent about the door being shut. It kind of gives her parents some concern, you know? They know she’s a good little girl, but they’ve heard about sibling rivalry and they’re not sure about what they should do. Then they remember that they’ve recently installed an intercom system in preparation for the arrival of the new baby, and they realize that they can let their little girl do this, and if they hear the slightest weird thing happening, they can be in there in a flash. So, they let their little girl go into the room. They close the door behind her. They race to the listening post. They hear her footsteps move across the room. They imagine her now standing over the baby’s crib, and then they hear her say to her two-day-old baby brother, “Tell me about God. I’ve almost forgotten.”
We all suffer from spiritual amnesia. We’ve forgotten who we are and who God is as well. Our identity and our theology is so important. To get beyond our filters or the baggage of all the false images we have of God is so important. Tell me about your image of God and I’ll hear how you feel about yourself and about your life. I’ll hear about your view of love, and grace, religion and spirituality. God is love! Yes, of course. But so often christians add an “and.” God is love “and” justice. God is love “and” anger. God is love “and” judgement. No. God is ONLY love. If this is not so, we fear ever being able to be free and at ease in our relationship with God. So preachers, pastors and teachers, tell me about God, but tell me about the real God – this God of only love. The goal? Daily to remember this God who loves us with a love that surpasses knowledge (Eph. 3:19). What if we remembered and lived in that truth, everyday, every moment?
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