A congregation of the United Church of Canada
NOTICINGS…
September 15, 2021
Not a very spiritually deep start to this week’s Noticings, you may be thinking. What do twinkle lights have to do with faith? Well, they make me happy. They help to transform my physical space into something more enjoyable. When I turn on those silly things I feel better, a little whimsical, lighter. Your physical environment influences you greatly, which means those silly lights are impacting what I preach, or what I write in Noticings on Wednesdays.
(Here’s the tie-in!) Richard Rohr says, “Your image of God creates you.” Your lens, or frame, or way of understanding who or what or how God is dramatically influences who and what and how you are. Just like my twinkle lights influence me, or create my mood, your image of God creates you. Genesis 1:26 says, Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us.”
You are imprinted with the image of God at the centre of your being. So what you think God’s image is, what God’s nature is, what God’s essence is, is making you from the inside out. So…what’s God like? Warm? Cold? Distant? Near? Judgy? Stern? Frightening? Caring? Loving? I really hope that image is one of pure, holy Love. Your image of God creates you. That is a big, chewy, deep, profound, consequential sentence. Theology matters! Your image of God creates you. Anyone care to join me on my comfy couch, look at my twinkly lights, and ponder for a while?