The Writing on the Wall: We are in God’s Image, not God in ours

How we perceive God directly affects how we live. An unhealthy portrait can frame creation in a hideous and unhealthy state of being. A healthy image can frame creation as vigorous and dynamic. If we are not aware of how we live out these assumptions/frames we are victims of our own stories that we live by.

As finite humans we have a tendency to see all things from our own point of view. Placing God in our own image is disastrous and extremely limiting to His/Her infinite status. Assumptions about His/Her love, purpose and personhood define how we see the world and ourselves. This might seem too philosophical/metaphysical/theological but the implications are as relevant and real as how you see yourself and role within the world.
Being in a love story is quite different than any other genre or story-line. Getting to know the author of this narrative is imperative as to how we decide to live, love and treat others.

Our finite narrative of God is habitually tainted because of our slanted perceptions of God and His love. What is your image of God???
Hey, what can you expect from us!!!-being finite, culturally situated within a time/place and trying to explain: A God who is everywhere at every moment throughout all times. This is a difficult task and must be approach with extreme humility and honesty.

Grace is a romantic tale of a mother/father who sees from afar their runaway child returning home and runs down the street to embrace them with love, compassion and unreserved understanding. This is the gospel, a radical tale of grace and unconditional love. A narrative of God loving His creation so much that there is no limit and no qualification, just because. God runs after us with unconditional love, meeting us where we are and embraces us forever. Within in this love he asks that we do the same-To love Him/others/creation unconditionally and without qualification-just like He shows us.


One of the loudest narratives that we western Americans hear is the one that says: you are guilty of The crime and need to see The grand Judge. The judge pardons you only if you perform the proper religious rituals/postures and processed statements. This popular imagery of how God relates to His creation reveals some shades of truth but is overtly dominated by other perilous assumptions.
Here we have an image of God as judge who finds you {or depending on your narrative:you find Him} and will pardon/love you on a contingent bases of if…..then. So if you do this/that, God will love you. Again there are shades of truth within this equation but the overall assumption is that this love is conditional and contingent upon you. A line of demarcation is drawn and you have to choose what you are doing to do in order to be loved. This type of relationship is conditional, moralistic and limited to either/or groups of people.
This type of narrative leads to a relationship {if you can even call it a relationship} that is predicated on being good/following the right rules and self-protectionism of I’m in and you’re out. In this narrative the relationship is not focused on growing deeper within love but keeping the rules and playing it safe as well a predisposition of wanting to be the gate-keeper of His kingdom.


The narrative of grace-The God of the universe eagerly running after you {as you are} in unconditional love is much different than the grand inquisitor with an itchy gavel-finger. These two narratives carry different assumptions about God/the world/and us.
One pushes you into a deep relationship with the Infinite and mysterious maker of All and creates awareness within you to love as He does: unconditionally with grace and humility. The other narrative places you into a legalistic and limited role/relationship with God, focused on rules and moralized behavior. This latter story-line plays to our finite notions of contingent love, following rules and being in the In-group & self preservation.

God wants all of us to daily grow deeper with Him and enjoy His presence and grace.
What a disgrace if we are missing growing deeper in Him because we have made God in our image and are content within that {especially if that places you in the In-group} and not striving daily to grow within His love and follow in His way.

P.S. Of course there are more than two competing narratives telling the story of God, and more often than not these narratives interlink with each other, but the overarching question still remains: Is the image of the God (whom you grow deeper with every day one) based on unconditional love and grace- who runs out with open arms to embrace you and all His creation or is your image of God one that limits and conditions love based on behavioral rites and conditional procedures?