A kindergarten teacher was walking around observing her classroom of children while they were drawing pictures. As she got to one girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was.

 

The girl replied, "I'm drawing God."

 

The teacher paused and said, "But no one knows what God looks like."

 

Without looking up from her drawing, the girl replied, "They will in a minute."

 

What is your image of God? How would you draw a picture of what God looks like? Often our first images of God were formed when we were quite young: perhaps a kindly, old grandfather-type with a long beard like Santa Claus. Or maybe a scary, fierce God who, like in the old Bill Cosby routine, tells Moses to scoot over just a bit so that he can zap unfaithful Israelites.

 

We all have an image of God. And when it comes to prayer, it’s important to contend with the one to whom you are praying: the image of God you’re working with. Does God have to be persuaded? Do you have to pray it the right way, do it the right way, so that God will listen? Is the God you’re praying to the Judge who’s judging you, judging your prayers? Is God the puppet master waiting on our poor puppet pleas before our strings are just cut?

 

What is your image of prayer and the God who hears your prayers? Ask yourself if this is actually the Living God of the Bible, the one Jesus calls not by the name of Judge, or Dictator or Police Officer, but Abba, the intimate name for Father, pointing not to a judicial metaphor for understanding our relationship with God but a familial one.

 

In the words of Dieter Uchtdorf: “Though we are incomplete, God loves us completely. Though we are imperfect, He loves us perfectly. Though we may feel lost and without compass, God's love encompasses us completely. ... He loves every one of us, even those who are flawed, rejected, awkward, sorrowful, or broken.”

The next time you bow your head to pray, dear friend, remember that the one to whom you pray is the Living God of Love.

Yours in the journey,
Pastor Kristen

 

                                      Announcements:

 

January 18th: The Thrift Shop is open from 9-3p.

 

February 3rd: Our United Methodist Women's Club will gathering, at 1:30p, in the

                         Narthex.

February 16: SYOS’s Hearts and Roses Concert, beginning at 4p, in the Sanctuary. Free Admission.