How do You Picture God?

and why that picture can affect your discernment

Photo by boram kim on Unsplash

Today’s question for discernment is short, but powerful. 

What’s my picture of God?

I ask this because I heard a phrase this week that really managed to capture something I’ve wrestled with, personally. Visual imagery/ metaphor suddenly clarified a false idea I’ve been carrying around. The phrase was: “God is not wringing his hands” over a situation.¹

It made me think: do I picture God wringing His hands over things? And I realized: sometimes I do! Sometimes I forget that I’m made in His image, and not He in mine. I tend to hand-wring, to worry, to ruminate, over situations that I can’t control. But God doesn’t.

God is not a worrier.

God cares. He is concerned for me. He wants what’s good for me. He’s sad when I choose what’s harmful to me and others (sin).

But He’s not wringing His beautifully scarred hands. He’s holding them open to me, inviting me closer.

Nowhere in the Gospels does Jesus worry. He weeps. He overturns tables. He heals and feeds and beckons the…