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As long as I can remember, I have been out of the box, I was different. I had difficulty sitting still during church, I questioned so many things that everyone else accepted quietly. I got in trouble for talking too much in class. My mom would say, “Why do you have to be so different?” That puzzled me—I was just being authentic Sally as well as a little girl knew how.
I dreamed of doing something that mattered in the world. I often took risks. Then God gave me a kindred spirit child who sympathized with me.
Years ago, on a cold, snowy winter's day, Nathan, then 14, was a budding philosopher. He was drinking a cup of hot chocolate in our kitchen. He said, "I'm so glad our God is out of the box in our home!"
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Well, a lot of people we know act like God is mad, disappointed with all of us, when we are not perfect. I am so glad the God we believe in is the One who created chili peppers for fajitas, Celtic music to dance to, puppy dogs to be snuggled, jokes for giggling, and stars to enjoy when we sleep out on the deck. We enjoy Him and celebrate Him in our home and look for his fingerprints in the outdoors, in feasting, in being friends. We don't just work for him—that's what I mean. I can even be loud and funny and opinionated and I’m loved just for being Nathan."
I was so thankful that is what he perceived in our home, at least at this time, a personal creator-God, filled with infinite ideas of ways to fill our world with pleasures, His artistry in nature, the ability to swing and sway to music, never endings that could respond to a massage. And a place where he could feel he belonged with all of his bigger-than-life personality.
All of us have a need to be known and still liked and loved.
I am an avid student and teacher of scripture, love the foundational truths that fill my mind. Yet, many Christians tend to defend fervently their theological underpinnings and argue rigorously the tenets of doctrine within a cerebral world. Yet often I have observed that in choosing to live this way, caring mainly "what I know intellectually about God," they miss so much of his personality and nature, which can be observed through his role as the shepherd, Father. I love the foundational truths that fill my mind and soul that I also upheld through the years in our home.
Yet because we live in an isolated, somewhat cerebral time, we define our worth by what we know or what kind of a degree we have or by the work we accomplish. Our spirituality is often expressed by the theological philosophy we claim—charismatic or reformed or Baptist or Catholic. Data, facts, and knowledge as reflected by scores on academic tests are often the measure of a person's worth.
God condemned the pharisees for being men of law and no compassion for the downhearted or heart for the true God. They were more concerned about keeping law than loving God.
Why do I keep on writing articles about beauty, creation, the boundaries of God's life being bigger than we can imagine? Because I live in a world of young adults that are leaving the faith by the droves. Children who are raised on the dry bones of rules rather than on the vibrant love, beauty and goodness of a living God are not captivated in their hearts to follow God. Rules do not engage the heart or imagination of living a great story for God's glory.
God is interested in us engaging with Him through our days, in prayer of honest feelings poured out, struggles in our wrestle with this world, worship by serving Him and others in the many moments of our daily life. Our children will believe in God when they see that He influences, fills and inspires our behavior and attitudes through out all the seasons of our lives because He is real to us—both through His word and through His spirit living through our lives.
Life is fast-paced, efficient, impersonal.
We regularly shut God out of our lives to center our attention on worldly achievement or efficiency and then wonder where He has gone.
Such an overemphasis on the academic and technological determines that a relationship with God will be dryly intellectual or clever but obviously absent of feeling, awe inspiring reverence as at the beauty of a snowflake and delight in the colors and variety that also express his personality.
It would be like writing or defending a long treatise on the role of a father, his character, and the history of fatherhood—separate from relating personally and intimately with him. No "report on fatherhood" would ever satisfy our need to experience life with an actual father, the life that comes from engaging in the personality, friendship, and companionship of a real live person.
God intended that we become witnesses of his beauty, design, color, and pleasure so that we could gain a more intimate, real, and personal knowledge of him. God does not want to be just a thought to know, but a personally engaging friend and Father whose relationship with us is filled with memory, delight, and moments to be experienced and enjoyed.
Is your picture of God, his transcendence, HIs joy, His beauty, His love and affection a part of the design of your home? Your home is a workshop to reflect the many facets of the jewel of His reality. What 3 things might you underline, express, this week to intentionally display the multi-dimensional Jesus in your home and relationships?