When
I was a teenager, I went to a weekend retreat thingy at a place called
Springs of Living Water at Richardson Springs. Or something like that.
It's part of YWAM now. Go Loren.
Yeah, anyhow... The cabin counselor guy who was in charge of the cabin I was in asked us during one of our group discussion meetings, "How do you picture God?" Then we went around the world (which was confined to that room right at that moment) and each of us talked for a few minutes. Most of us even answered the question.
When it was his turn to talk, one of the more colorful characters in the group kicked his feet back on his bunk and began to draw out a tale like that story-telling kid in the movie Stand By Me. He had an east coast accent, so read his words like that.
"My world is a bit different than all of yours," he began dramatically. "In my world there are dragons, wise and powerful. In my world the yeti rules the high mountains. In my world vampires and werewolves are real monstrosities.
"I envision God as an old man," he continued in his confident Bostonian accent. We were all enraptured. From the moment he started speaking, he made us all sound like pre-schoolers who still had trouble actually forming complete sentences and talking without mumbling at our feet. "An old man..." he paused for a moment savoring the moment, "in an all white leather suit, with a brim hat, you know, fedora style. In my head, he's always got a cigar in his mouth that he just lit, and a twinkle in his eye like he knows the punch-line. Which I'm pretty sure he does."
The room was silent for a moment before somebody started chuckling softly at the image.
As for me, I have discovered that my vision of God has changed quite a bit over the years. Originally, I had a similar conception, that God was an older man... ok, without the cigar and leathers, though.
In my conception, he was in a large stone throne room with engravings all over the walls and pillars depicting angels and demons doing things that were angelic and demonic. He sat on a large stone throne with armrests up a bunch of large stone steps. The ceiling was not... I mean, there was nothing -- you couldn't see it. As you looked up everything just faded to black.
At some point, I came to the belief that putting God in the form of a man was a severe limitation on him. After all, I'm not any sort of diety, and I feel that it's a limitation on me! So then, the throne room remained in my imagination, and my God became an ever-invasive, ever-present, ever-flowing mist inhabiting the room. Which somehow made me nervous to breath.
At some even later point, I realized that I was still confining God by keeping him in that throne room. How could I do such a thing?
Well, how do you picture God?
. Topher
Yeah, anyhow... The cabin counselor guy who was in charge of the cabin I was in asked us during one of our group discussion meetings, "How do you picture God?" Then we went around the world (which was confined to that room right at that moment) and each of us talked for a few minutes. Most of us even answered the question.
When it was his turn to talk, one of the more colorful characters in the group kicked his feet back on his bunk and began to draw out a tale like that story-telling kid in the movie Stand By Me. He had an east coast accent, so read his words like that.
"My world is a bit different than all of yours," he began dramatically. "In my world there are dragons, wise and powerful. In my world the yeti rules the high mountains. In my world vampires and werewolves are real monstrosities.
"I envision God as an old man," he continued in his confident Bostonian accent. We were all enraptured. From the moment he started speaking, he made us all sound like pre-schoolers who still had trouble actually forming complete sentences and talking without mumbling at our feet. "An old man..." he paused for a moment savoring the moment, "in an all white leather suit, with a brim hat, you know, fedora style. In my head, he's always got a cigar in his mouth that he just lit, and a twinkle in his eye like he knows the punch-line. Which I'm pretty sure he does."
The room was silent for a moment before somebody started chuckling softly at the image.
As for me, I have discovered that my vision of God has changed quite a bit over the years. Originally, I had a similar conception, that God was an older man... ok, without the cigar and leathers, though.
In my conception, he was in a large stone throne room with engravings all over the walls and pillars depicting angels and demons doing things that were angelic and demonic. He sat on a large stone throne with armrests up a bunch of large stone steps. The ceiling was not... I mean, there was nothing -- you couldn't see it. As you looked up everything just faded to black.
At some point, I came to the belief that putting God in the form of a man was a severe limitation on him. After all, I'm not any sort of diety, and I feel that it's a limitation on me! So then, the throne room remained in my imagination, and my God became an ever-invasive, ever-present, ever-flowing mist inhabiting the room. Which somehow made me nervous to breath.
At some even later point, I realized that I was still confining God by keeping him in that throne room. How could I do such a thing?
Well, how do you picture God?
. Topher
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