I am a great fan of the Marvel-gods. Especially Loki en Thor are great characters, are good looking, seem quiet approachable and above all, they are so human. You embrace them automatically and give them a place in your heart.
The God of the Bible seems to lack all these qualities. Most bleak image of God is that of a grim, demanding old man without a sense of humour who is way high above us. The other end of the spectrum is that of a sugar daddy who has created you because He has a destination for you and blesses you with everything you need to reach this destiny, and more.
I has been hard for me to combine the image of the holy, majestic, self conscious God with the image of the loving, approachable, caring Father.
God for me was a distant father, only available on Sundays. I honoured Him in church because that was the way it was done. I believed He had died for my sins and tried to be properly grateful for that, primarily by behaving the right way. How else?
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* God is a holy God, you honour Him by living modest, devout and holy.
* God is the King of kings. You should be respectful towards Him, like how you should encounter a king at the least.
* God is a loving Father, you honour Him with a personal, intimate relationship.
* God is too big and too comprehensive for our understanding. We honour Him by not speaking concrete about Him, so we don’t limit His image with our words.
* God is an abundant, creative God who made the plentiful nature and gave you your emotions. You honour Him by experiencing your faith with your entire heart, and soul and body.
How you can also look at it:
“The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Sam 16:7)
Everybody knows God in a certain way and everybody tries to honour Him in his or her own way. Maybe your way isn’t the way of your neighbour and maybe the way of the other is totally not appealing to you, that is possible. But that doesn’t make it a wrong way.
God is holy ánd creative ánd a king ánd a father and above all too big and too versatile for us to comprehend.
We all are made in His image and likeness, so we all look a little bit like God. If we, in our diversity, all show a little facet of God, lets honour each other there. Let me honour your devoutness en you my abundance. I don’t fall short in devoutness and you don’t in abundance, we just show different facets.
I learned to combine the holy, majestic, self conscious part of God with the loving, approachable, caring part of His paternity through a fragment of the film ‘Anna and the King’ (1999). The film is set in 1862 and tells the story of the king of Siam (Thailand) and the female English teacher of his children. The king of Siam could not be approached like an ordinary man, there were strict protocols in his presence. In the film there is a scene where the king has an official reception with dignitaries. Everything is very formal and if anyone should violate the protocol, he would be severely punished. Then the door of the hall opens and his children walk in. They go to the king, their father, climb on his lap and kiss him goodnight. Then they hop out of the room with their backs toward him, without consequences.
It is the same man, but in two totally different roles. He is the king that should be approached according to protocol, but for his children he is a father they can just go to. His children realise their father is a powerful and self conscious man, but I think they would hurt him if they would approach him according to protocol. They have a different status, they are children, heirs, not servants or nationals.
This is the way I learned to see God. My Father is highly exalted, the name above all names, the perfect one. I may call myself His child. I am proud of my father and I feel fortunate to belong to Him.
How could it be possible not to honour such a special God?
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