What God Sees

So, the confirmation class is rolling. And I’m looking ahead at the work we’re doing. We’re coming up on some interesting conversations like: If we’re equal parts sinner and saint—created in the Imago Dei (image of God) yet total sinners—how can we be both?
 
Do we take that literally and can we see God just by looking in the mirror? Do we take on the sinner part literally? 
 
Is it all metaphor for spiritual image, spiritual sin? Or what?
 
What is sin, anyway? Doing bad things? Breaking the “rules”? 
 
You see the problem. And what’s always fascinated me about the “Presbyterian conversation” is that we are most often left with more questions than answers. Almost always. We are constantly taking things apart and putting them back together again.
 
This is the kind of work we’re doing in the confirmation class! 
 
We’re forcing some adulting—finding our place on the spiritual growth spectrum. 
 
I like to say that God sees us “perfect in our imperfection.” 
 
God = Love
 
Love = God
 
Always in all ways. 
 
It’s a gift that we can’t do anything to earn. It’s on us to accept it. It’s there before we even know it. Saying it another way, God’s prevenient grace just “is.” 
 
So, a couple parting shots courtesy of Richard Rohr—boom! And boom!
 
When you looked at me
Your eyes imprinted your grace in me;
For this you loved me ardently;
And thus my eyes deserved
To adore what they behold in you.
. . . And let us go forth to behold ourselves in your beauty.
--John of the Cross (1542–1591)
 
Religion, from the root “religio,” means to reconnect, to bind back together…In a very real sense, the word “God” is just a synonym for everything. So if you do not want to get involved with everything, stay away from God. - RR
 
I’ll just leave it right there.
 
Grace & Peace,
Scott