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On Seeing God

On Seeing God

Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. (Colossians 3:11)

The Bible is the story of God’s ever-progressing self-revelation. God wants us to see the whole picture, or at least a bigger and bigger part of the picture. But we can only start to see once we give up believing that we have the whole truth already. To see, we must listen as though we don’t have all the answers yet.

One way to see more of the picture is to pay attention to the ways in which humans outside our frame of reference see God. If you’re not Catholic, pay attention to the Catholics. You may find much in their beliefs with which to disagree. But don’t stop there; look deeper, and be open to the possibility that they’re seeing faces of God that you miss. Could there be something important in the regular practice of confession? Could penance be a step out of guilt and toward freedom? Could the observance of holy days, of rest, of ritual and reverence be more than stodgy rules; could structure sometimes be refreshing instead of stifling?

Pay attention to churches that come from their parts of the world. What’s up with Russian Orthodoxy? Not that you need to join that denomination. But what’s the deal with icons? Are they really as heretical as you’ve always been told, or might there be more to this than you realized? Early icon painters referred to their work as “the Word of God in lines and color.” Icons are said to be written, not painted, and read, or prayed with, rather than prayed to.

What is the African Church seeing that we’re not? What does the Asian Church remember that we’ve forgotten? What do the Jews know about God that we would do well to stay aware of? And geography is not the only direction to stretch; we need not limit ourselves to our own time, either. There are many in the past who have seen God with a clarity that made them unable to go on living their lives as before. Some of them left words that make it possible for us, too, to be changed by their visions. Some of them wrote hymns. Go to a used bookstore sometime, or to Goodwill, or to your parents’ or grandparents’ bookshelves, or even search online: Read the words of hymns. Whether you’ve ever sung them or not, whether you like singing them or not, just read the words. And listen.

It will be worth it. You’ll see.

Dig Deeper:

Colossians 3:1-17
Revelation 5:6-14

Today’s Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, reveal Yourself to me any way You want. I don’t want to limit You.


RELEVANT’s “Deeper Walk” daily devotionals are presented by the LUMO Project, a visual translation of the four Gospels developed to engage people with scripture in a new way. You can watch the videos—which redefine the standard of visual biblical media—on YouTube, and find out more about LUMO’s mission at their website.

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