Noticings – September 15, 2021

NOTICINGS…

September 15, 2021

I absolutely love my new music room/home office. I’ve got my guitars displayed on the wall, a comfy couch to relax on, a spacious desk for my sprawl, and most of all, a door! As in, it’s my own space – not shared or multipurpose or family space. It’s just mine! I’ve never had that before, and I love it. The one thing it doesn’t have is a window. It’s in the basement, nestled into a slope, so there is no window. So I did something fun and goofy. I bought ribbon lights and installed them around the ceiling perimeter. Now with the touch of a remote control I can change my room into any colour of the rainbow. I could even have a flashing disco light show if I wanted (I don’t, it’s too much, but I could). A colleague joked that I could set it up with the colour of the liturgical season to inspire myself.

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?