Seven words

James Cathcart November 07, 2020 0 2

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1 John 3: 1-3 (NRSV)

 

1 See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. 3 And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

“…we will see him as he is.”
Just seven words 
Seven ordinary words.
All just one syllable.
The longest only four letters.
There’s no jargon.
No complex theological terminology.
You can say the whole thing in under two seconds.
You can write it on the back of a postage stamp.

And yet…

They light an explosion of meaning, of possibility.
Just a handful of sounds light a firework in the imagination.
To see God as God is.
What does that even mean?

What is it like to ‘be’ God?

We are limited by three dimensional space and time but God isn’t. 
What would sensing be like beyond time and space as we currently understand it?

It seems unfathomable.

And yet…

When babies are born they don’t process time
or light 
or space 
or sound 
anything like adults or even young children do. 

Their world is a stop motion, seesaw, burbling time-flip of consciousness 
as they start to piece
by piece
by piece
to piece together their new reality. 

Continuous movement is a mystery,
they can’t knit the frames together,
let alone the colours or the details.

As babies we literally learn to see the world around us 
through the love invested in us. 
The love of those who care for us actually wires our brains together 
it allows us to decode, notice, follow, and understand reality as it unfolds.

So, when God is revealed to us ‘as God is’ I think it will be similar. 

At first baby steps
but always in the context of love.
We will grow and learn to see God in a whole new way. 

And in so doing
we will get a glimpse of a reality more fluid, 
more cohesive, 
and more beautiful 
than we can yet imagine.

PRAYER:

Dear God,
like infants grasping at reality
we saints who travel through life
are only beginning to understand you.
We look forward to learning how to see you
ever more
for ever more
Amen.