Thursday, July 20, 2006
"The face of a child says it all, especially the mouth part of the face."--Jack Handy
I looked briefly tonight at The Book of Matthew, Chapter 18. It is the parable where Jesus states that unless we humble ourselves & have faith like a child then we will be unable to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Last week I attended the PawSox baseball game. There are so many amazing moments when you go to see a Baseball game live, but the most stirring seems to come from the expressions on the faces of the children in the bleachers. Maybe they're watching the game for the first time, or maybe they're bigger fans than us grown-ups will ever be. Baseball is unique like that; it's not football, with it's constant tackles and destruction. It's stressful and delightful all at once. It is an art form. (That is unless you're the Kansas City Royals--ahem 32-62--but I digress...)
I mean, look at this picture from a recent Cubs game taken by Jodie on a recent trip to Chi-Town. There's a reason in all those sports movies that children are the last to lose faith in the baseball players. It's Matthew 18, told over and over again.
Also this week I rented Close Encounters of the Third Kind from the library. I had never seen this, so I was excited to finally get a chance. I made it about halfway through Tuesday night but stopped to watch the amazing lightning storm outside my window. An hour or so later as I was about to resume the local news started covering a fire on an oil ship at the Port of Providence and that took up the rest of the night.
So I finished it last night, and the more I thought about it today not only was it a visually stunning film, but it was also quite spiritual. Imagine if every time we thought of God (and we all think of God and a higher being at one time or another, some more often than others, some of us hardly at all, but our minds inevitably go there at one point. It's how we're wired, if I can sum up thousands of years of mankinds thoughts' into four words) we think of God as if we were thinking and experiencing the concept of a Higher Power for the first time ever.
If you haven't seen the movie, perhaps you've seen the familar clips of a young Richard Dreyfuss and the expression he gives upon encountering the glorious UFO Mother Ship. It's a expression of awe and adoration for the beauty of the moment. You can tell there is fear but the shear glory of the moment shines through the fear and pushes it into an expression of amazement.
If every time we even considered the idea of God this was our expression, physically and mentally, I believe that is what Jesus was saying in Matthew 18. We can't picture God. We put physical characteristics on Him, but again that's just how we're wired. And while it's not important what we don't see, at the same time how we (per)/(re) ceive it is perhaps the most important part of our belief in a God. We become more and more distracted as we grow up, and I would like to believe that we come full circle before we physically die. God is not about politics or even nesc. organized thoughts. God is about amazement and fear and wonder...and we encounter this when we revert to faith like a child.
Just some thoughts before dinner. Now I must go; my Speghetti-O's and corn-mix is bubbling on the stove, and my weather radio is beeping at me. ¶ 7/20/2006 09:22:00 PM
Last week I attended the PawSox baseball game. There are so many amazing moments when you go to see a Baseball game live, but the most stirring seems to come from the expressions on the faces of the children in the bleachers. Maybe they're watching the game for the first time, or maybe they're bigger fans than us grown-ups will ever be. Baseball is unique like that; it's not football, with it's constant tackles and destruction. It's stressful and delightful all at once. It is an art form. (That is unless you're the Kansas City Royals--ahem 32-62--but I digress...)
I mean, look at this picture from a recent Cubs game taken by Jodie on a recent trip to Chi-Town. There's a reason in all those sports movies that children are the last to lose faith in the baseball players. It's Matthew 18, told over and over again.
Also this week I rented Close Encounters of the Third Kind from the library. I had never seen this, so I was excited to finally get a chance. I made it about halfway through Tuesday night but stopped to watch the amazing lightning storm outside my window. An hour or so later as I was about to resume the local news started covering a fire on an oil ship at the Port of Providence and that took up the rest of the night.
So I finished it last night, and the more I thought about it today not only was it a visually stunning film, but it was also quite spiritual. Imagine if every time we thought of God (and we all think of God and a higher being at one time or another, some more often than others, some of us hardly at all, but our minds inevitably go there at one point. It's how we're wired, if I can sum up thousands of years of mankinds thoughts' into four words) we think of God as if we were thinking and experiencing the concept of a Higher Power for the first time ever.
If you haven't seen the movie, perhaps you've seen the familar clips of a young Richard Dreyfuss and the expression he gives upon encountering the glorious UFO Mother Ship. It's a expression of awe and adoration for the beauty of the moment. You can tell there is fear but the shear glory of the moment shines through the fear and pushes it into an expression of amazement.
If every time we even considered the idea of God this was our expression, physically and mentally, I believe that is what Jesus was saying in Matthew 18. We can't picture God. We put physical characteristics on Him, but again that's just how we're wired. And while it's not important what we don't see, at the same time how we (per)/(re) ceive it is perhaps the most important part of our belief in a God. We become more and more distracted as we grow up, and I would like to believe that we come full circle before we physically die. God is not about politics or even nesc. organized thoughts. God is about amazement and fear and wonder...and we encounter this when we revert to faith like a child.
Just some thoughts before dinner. Now I must go; my Speghetti-O's and corn-mix is bubbling on the stove, and my weather radio is beeping at me. ¶ 7/20/2006 09:22:00 PM
