There are two places most people expect to catch a glimpse of God: In church or in nature. The trouble with that is we are neither place often enough to then live as if God is omnipresent. God becomes an add-on rather than a constant companion.
“A primary but often shirked task of the Christian in our society and culture is to notice, to see in detail, the sacredness of creation. The marks of God’s creative works are all around and in us. We live surrounded by cherubim singing, Holy, Holy, Holy.” Eugene H. Peterson, Christ Plays in 10,000 Places.
In the above quote Peterson is not using the word creation as we often do, in the sense of wilderness and nature untouched by human hands. Peterson rather is using it holistically, meaning all that God has created: humans, and even the good things we have made.
The pictures below are from an evening with a friend on the deck of a trendy place called Tsunami. God was not only in the sunsets, but in our conversation about family, frogs, rootedness, what the future holds, and most of all how we two are simple men who are trying to live authentic lives of faith. Such things are hard to catch in photos. So, the glass of wine reflecting the Cajun sunset will have to also reflect seeing God in the spaces between two people.
The tug toiling in the golden water . . . well what metaphor is that?
Is God in All Places, All the Time?
Reading Time: 2 minutes
I think that it is hard to really perceive/deduce God’s character/identity from our “earthly visual clues” only, as awesome and inspiring as they may very well be,… perhaps the Greek and Roman mythologists give us a clue as to what humans may conclude about the “vastness of creation” and the various celestial “players” that they perceived wandering around in the sky,… lots of “projection and drama”, for sure,…
what was added since those times?,… Christ came to dwell with us, and become a ransom for our salvation, and thus the New Testament was added to the Old,… and by reading and understanding this enduring Message, we have much more to respect, understand and contemplate, as far as God’s Identity and Attributes and Message,…
You probably know the categories you’re speaking of are called general revelation, how we see God in life, and special revelation, how Christ spoke and lived revelation.
not really, Eugene, but that makes sense,… because I was kind of intentionally “kept out of God’s Loop” as a developing human, and expected to make sense of “Life”, based on the raw experience and the (well-enough-intentioned) cultural/secular offerings, I find that I am continually trying to conceptually piece together that (“trusting”, but also “lost and searching”) experience, with the subsequent revelations that do include God!,… it’s kind of like having my own BC/AC dividing line, which I (apparently) keep trying to describe,… (-:
probably meant to write BC/AD dividing line,… (-:
Yes. Well said.
so, this is probably an “ongoing Life meditation” for me!,…
I just realized that something that I missed the most during my young years and on into early adulthood, besides the interwoven broad-scale “enhanced meaning” and implied personal connection “with God” that such accepted teaching would have given my thoughts and understanding, ~ what I know that I “really missed” (in retrospect) was the sense of having “a shield and protection” from the general “life” chaos and randomly occurring elements that are inevitably parts of our “natural world environment”, and often can be hurtful and confusing to whomever experiences them, while trying to grow and understand how all this “Life stuff” fits together,… (I would especially “feel sorry” for people who were abused and victimized in destructive ways),…
perhaps that “sense of protection”, that comes to us “from the Divine”, and having our Identity be found “in Him”, is the greatest benefit and change from just being/(feeling like) “an obscure and vulnerable” secular person, navigating life,…
it IS “a Big World” out there, and we really do need “all the help we can get”,…
Psalm 3:3 “But You, O Lord, are a shield for me, My glory and the One who lifts up my head.”
Psalm 28:7 “The Lord is my strength and my shield; My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart greatly rejoices, And with my song I will praise Him.”
Psalm 91:4 “He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler.”
Proverbs 30:5 “Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.”
Ephesians 6:16 “above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.”
& thanks, Eugene, for letting me write about these things!,… (-:
I appreciate the way you weave where your are spiritually and physically (now) into your past story. Because, of course, God was there as much as now no matter how we noticed. And you’re welcome.
“God did make Himself known”, but in dynamic and unusual circumstances that weren’t integrated with any particular Biblical revelation or teaching,… and “now and then”,… I did feel, in a general sense, that God was “out there”, trying to reach me,…
and I’m really appreciating how much difference actually accepting the Truth of the Word of God, and the Faith of those who preach/ present/ support it, and intentionally/ obediently becoming an adherent of this Faith in Christ (as in public Baptism), ~ how much difference this can all make in the way one perceives and experiences, and thinks and feels, and “does” their own Life,… looking back, I can see such a transformation, even though this “Life in Christ” proceeds and develops fairly gradually, inch by inch, day by day, year by year,… but I think this is what I am (very thankfully and appreciatively) realizing, while “getting old” and “looking back”,… and “Glory to God!”,… (-:
The timeless God changes past, present, and future!