coloring without lines

in light of recent circumstances and blessings that have been poured out abundantly on this little soul, a thought crossed my mind, and I think I stumbled across a little fact of life.

it’s been a MILD winter. and by mild, I mean, I’ve never seen a winter this warm or snow-free in my entire existence. personally, that was a blessing beyond comparison because winter can be such a struggle for me. it’s dark, it’s cold, and it’s colorless—lifeless. I know I’m not the only one, but I get claustrophobic in the winter. I know, hard to imagine that a person so little can feel trapped in such a big world, but it happens. anyway, this temperate winter: you bring it up with your neighbor, and they agree but immediately bring up their fears of a snowy blast in March, bring it up with your friend on the way back for your spring semester and they share the same concerns, for goodness’ sake, even people on Facebook are skeptical of the permanence of the blessing.

that kind of gave way to a more general observation about how people view blessings. we thank God for the things He gives, but we immediately become skeptics, and assume He must be up to no good if He’s being good now. why is that? why do we assume that if God is good now, that He won’t be so gracious in a month for now? I think the answer applies to more than just the fact that we tend to respond to God’s goodness like paranoid yuppies.

fact of life: we have a tendency to color God like to look a lot like us.

what a disservice we do to our God to characterize Him as though He were made in our image. and not just to Him, it hinders faith like nothing else to believe that you’re trusting in a being that operates as you do. I think it kind of puts Matthew 21:18-22 in a new light. a wrong view of God fosters doubt. and doubt hinders faith.

which brings me to something I’d like to chase for a while, perhaps in a short series of posts: if a wrong “picture” of God is what  kindles doubt and hinders faith, how am I supposed to color a “picture” with no lines?  

although, every question brings a blessing, and this one brought the reminder that my invisible God DID paint a picture of Himself in shades and hues so similar to my own--He sent His only Son as a human for my sin. and the invisible God starts to draw lines. here's to tracing the lines for a while.