Monday, July 10, 2006

Who, What is God?



WHO, WHAT IS GOD?

As a child, my family moved often because of my father's job in the fledgling computer industry. By the time I was in sixth grade, I had attended four elementary schools in three different states. It seemed that we moved every three years or so, taking us farther from family ties and having to restart relationships with friends and neighbors over and over again. Every time we moved, we would attend whatever protestant church was in walking distance. My father, had been raised Roman Catholic and mother's father was Mormon, her mother Presbyterian. They had pretty much decided they would compromise and attend a protestant church when they married to avoid major issues and disputes over which. Sometimes my father would take me to other places of worship, the synagogue and the mosque. As a very young child then, I wondered about the nature of God, who it was, was it a he or she and why there seemed to be so many ideas about what the relationship of man to God is. I do not pretend to have all the answers now, more than halfway through my life, but I have honestly inquired and asked the question with as open a heart and mind as possible. In Exodus 33:18-23 Moses is alone with the Lord and he asks, "Oh, let me behold Your Presence!' And He answered, " I will make all My Goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim before you the name Lord, and the grace that I grant and the compassion that I show. But," He said, " you cannot see My face, for man may not see Me and live." And the Lord said, " See, there is a place near Me. Station yourself on the rock and as my Presence passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock and shield you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take My hand away and you will see My back; but My face must not be seen." There is a song we sing sometimes, "Have you seen Jesus My Lord?". It goes on to say that He, the Divine presence, is in plain view when we look into the faces of one another, that that is when we have seen Him. God sculpted us in His image male and female, then He painted us all the colors of the rainbow. Gods face passes us daily in hundreds of faces if we open our eyes and see. "Have you seen Jesus my Lord? He's here in plain view, take a look open your eyes. He'll show life to you."