News: Views

: Stu

05 Oct

[08-12-08] Chocolate Traffic
Fancy working 80-100 hours a week for little pay? If so the chocolate trade is for you.

[11-11-08] Update on our 08-09 Goals
We've been pursuing our strategic goals for 08-09 for over two months now, so I thought it would be good to update everyone on how they're going.

[06-10-08] The Ten Commandments
This term we are looking at the Ten Commandments - barely 300 words long in English, yet they form the basis of our legal system, the foundations of our parliament and lie at the core of western civilisation.

[01-10-08] Open Heaven at 15 Years Old: Growing Up
This summer, Open Heaven turned 15 years old.

[26-09-08] Welcome to Loughborough
If you're a fresher (or even someone who's just thinking of coming along to Open Heaven for the first time) we'd like to give you a warm welcome.

[15-09-08] To be Loved, to Love and to Serve
Here is a short account of what my last year has been like my aim is to encourage, motivate, and challenge us all, as we seek to be continually transformed into the likeness of our king, Jesus.

[10-09-08] The Hidden Beauty of the Church
While walking around inside an old but still well used church building, I found myself in a kind of gatehouse with a dusty old staircase leading down from one end.

[28-05-08] I Am the True Grapevine
Looking at a tree outside my office window the other day I realised how strong the trunk was and that the branches did little to support it.

[12-02-08] Responding to the Call
We are embarking on a journey of adventure, into the unknown; a little nervous, anticipating many challenges but determined to position ourselves to be ever more used by God in establishing the Kingdom in every area of our personal and corporate lives.

[27-11-07] Getting Closer...Part 2
For a while it's been everywhere.

Favourite Thing

This afternoon I was walking along the street slightly ahead of a man holding his young daughter's hand. For some reason, rather than speed up and leave them behind, I slowed down a bit and listened in on their conversation, and what the man said totally shocked me.

Before I get to that, though, a brief sidetrack: I spend some of my time studying philosophy, and philosophers have a hard time when it comes to talking about God, mainly because they can't work out exactly what the word means.

What do we mean when we say "God"? If God can't be seen, then we can't say what He looks like; and if God is not made of anything, we can't say what He is composed of. If there is only one God, then we can't compare Him with any others (and if God is neither male nor female, we shouldn't even say 'Him'). The trouble with trying to describe God is that God is not really like anything. In fact, God's basic dissimilarity to everything else is part of what the word 'God' means: there is everything in the created world on the one hand, and there is the Creator on the other.

In the 11th Century, Saint Anselm of Canterbury - a very philosophically minded man - described God as 'that than which nothing greater can be thought'. In other words, if you can think of something more impressive, powerful or lovely than what you're thinking of, then you're not thinking of God. Thinking about God will always be an unfinished business, because no single image or idea will do Him justice.

Anyway, back to the man in the street. This is what he said to his daughter:

"Do you know what my favourite thing to do is? My favourite thing to do is to walk down the street holding your hand."

Jesus said that we should call God 'Father'. The word 'father' might mean a great many different things to different people; things that might make us smile or things that might make us cry. Human fathering can be a difficult or even disastrous business. Why then did Jesus think it was a good idea to describe God – who we can't see or touch – as a father?

Perhaps it was because somehow we know a good father when we see one. We might not understand what 'that than which nothing greater can be thought' means, but if we can recognise a good father, we might be able to begin to imagine a father better than all others. Today I got a glimpse of what that might mean. It means that the unseen God, whom no description can ever really match, and who will always be beyond comprehension, is in some very strange way most of all like a father. And it means that if we want to begin understanding God, one way of getting started might be to imagine a man leaning down to his daughter and saying: "Do you know what my favourite thing to do is? My favourite thing to do is to walk down the street holding your hand."

Photos provided by Glamhag and Robby van Moor under a Creative Commons License.

Posted by: Stu Jesson on Friday Oct 5th, 2007

Comments

Adam Fenton-Smith writes:

Stu. brilliant, thank you for walking slightly slower down the street and over-hearing that conversation

...left on Friday Oct 12th, 2007

Jimmy Zachariah writes:

Brilliant, it's amazing how our Father shows us how much He loves us. Thank you Stu.

...left on Friday Oct 12th, 2007

Jonny Nott writes:

Did anyone mention brilliance?

...left on Tuesday Oct 16th, 2007