The God-Shimmer
Where have you seen God?
This is a fairly common question you may be asked at church, especially in a small group setting. In fact, this question was regularly asked at many of the church functions and events I was a part of growing up—from youth and college ministries to mission trips. It even became a part of our weekly staff meeting when I later worked at that same church.
Where do you see God?
This question helps to remind us to be aware of God’s presence in our lives. This question conditions us to continually search for God as we move from moment to moment. As we search, it becomes easier and easier to notice God in the places we go, the things we do, and the people we encounter. Noticing God in our lives in this way helps us to worship better—to be more thankful for God’s continual love and presence. When we reflect on where we saw God in past events, we begin to see a little better how deeply involved God is in each of our lives. The question of “where do you see God” can help us with the important spiritual practice of becoming aware of God around us.
However, the question of “where do you see God” can also cause us to unintentionally drift farther away from God. The more we “see God” in a specific place or thing, the more we can begin to raise that thing up as God in and of itself, leading us into idolatry. Something good and wholesome, something that was intended to point us towards God has become warped and twisted, replacing God in our minds. Two examples come to mind.
Church buildings - the church building can become associated with God’s presence, becoming the only place where a person can have “an encounter with God.” When this happens, God has become confined to a church building, and the church building has become a god to those who attend.
The Bible - when the Bible is treated as the only place that God speaks, God is in a sense “bound within the pages of the Bible” to be pulled out and used at the whim of the reader. God cannot be bound within a book, and the Bible should never be worshiped as if it could contain or explain God. Instead, the Bible should be read in an air of humility, as a window through which we may glimpse a little bit of the mystery that is God.
When we begin to associate God with specific places or things, we run the risk of idolatry—of worshiping that place/thing as if it were God.
God is present everywhere—God cannot be contained.
God is present in every place, every situation, and every thing. God is always with us, but often we are blind to God’s continual presence. We have become so focused on the creation that we can no longer see past to the Creator. But the whole purpose of the creation is to point to the Creator. When we “see God” somewhere, we should recognize that we are only ever seeing one aspect of God’s presence reflected in God’s creation. God is not contained in any one of these places or things—God is beyond or behind or beneath, so big and great and blinding that we can only catch a glimpse from the silhouettes created when God lights up God’s creation. When we begin to understand this, we begin to see that creation is only important in how effectively it can help us to see God. That all of the places we go and the things we do and the situations we find ourselves in are only beautiful because God lights them up.
“What’s in front is real; what’s behind is the reason for it being real, the source of its realness. Beyond, behind, beneath all solid things there seems to be solidity. Behind, beneath, beyond all changes, all wheeling and whirring processes, all flows, there seems to be flow itself...It feels as if everything is backed with light, everything flows in a sea of light, everything is just a surface feature of the light.”
-Francis Spufford, Unapologetic: Why, Despite Everything, Christianity Can Still Make Surprising Emotional Sense
But we are different.
When it comes to humanity, God is not just beyond or behind or beneath. We are not present just to reveal God from the silhouette God lights up. Instead, God’s image is present in each and every one of us. A little piece of God is revealed in each person around us. The ministers. The doctors. The bankers. The homeless. The first responders. The revolutionaries. The missionaries. The prisoners. The rich. The poor. The popular. The sick. The shunned. Each and every one of us holds God’s image within us—an image that can break through no matter how many walls we build to contain it. No matter how good the mask is we put on to hide it. If only we could recognize that image within ourselves, and look for it in others. If only we could nourish that image. If only we could celebrate that image.
So let’s look for the presence of God in the world around us.
In the places we go.
In the things we do.
Let’s worship God with all we are.
In the beautiful and awe inspiring.
In the sacred and holy spaces.
In the boring and mundane places.
Let’s look past the silhouette of creation.
To God who lights it up.
To the God-shimmer we can only ever glimpse.
Let’s search for the image of God.
In ourselves and those around us.
Through the cracks in the walls we have built up.
Under the masks we have put on to hide it.
For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.
-2 Corinthians 4: 6-7