Biggness, Smallness, and the Image of God – Reflections on God as Creator, part 3

August 26, 2010 By Kurt Willems 2 Comments

Now, lets think about the life of Jesus.  How does he have to say about us in our smallness?  There is one episode in the Gospel of Luke that gives us something to ponder about our role as image-bearers.  Luke 20.20 starts the story:

20 Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be sincere. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. 21 So the spies questioned him: “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. 22 Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

23 He saw through their duplicity and said to them, 24 “Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?”
“Caesar’s,” they replied.

25 He said to them, “Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

26 They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public. And astonished by his answer, they became silent.  Luke 20.20-26

What does it mean to give back to God what is God’s?  Well, if Caesar’s image is on a coin… so what…he can have it!  God’s image is on you!

If you want to know how to live in a world where there are governments and systems that are corrupt.  Don’t worry about things that bear Caesar’s image.  [Read more...]

Filed Under: Devotional Contemplation, Evolution 2 Comments

Biggness, Smallness, and the Image of God – Reflections on God as Creator, part 2

August 24, 2010 By Kurt Willems Leave a Comment

Lets read the climatic part of this creation poem* (Genesis 1) that as we said earlier is picked up by Psalm 8:

26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” 27 So God created human beings in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.  Genesis 1.26-27

God’s creation project is not complete without human beings in the world to bear his image.  We often talk about being created in the image of God, but what exactly are we talking about?  The Jewish tradition that New Testament writers seem to have used as a backdrop was that God’s image had to do with humans reflecting His glory in care of the Garden of Eden.[1] Think of an angled mirror.  Imagine that God’s love is light and that humans are mirrors designed to reflect that light into the creation project.

Or think of a king in the ancient world when this ancient text was written.  An emperor lived in the capitol city of his empire and therefore could not be present in all of the conquered territories.  So he would have statues or (images) made of himself so that people under his rule would be able to say: “that’s what our king is like.”  Walter Brueggemann [Read more...]

Filed Under: Devotional Contemplation, Evolution, N. T. Wright, Walter Brueggemann Tagged With: , , , , , , Leave a Comment

Biggness, Smallness, and the Image of God – Reflections on God as Creator, part 1

August 23, 2010 By Kurt Willems 11 Comments

When we consider how incredibly vast the universe really is, we become confronted by two realities simultaneously: our smallness, and God’s bigness.  In comparison to the size of everything that God has caused into existence (my life, my story…your life, your story) is very, very small.  On the flip-side, if we consider that the size of our gigantic universe is merely microscopic compared to the size of the Creator of it all, we soon realize that God is very, very big.  One of the writers in the book of Psalms wrestled with this dichotomy in the following way:

3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what are mere mortals that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? 5 You have made them a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned them with glory and honor. 6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: 7 all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, 8 the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. 9 Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!  Psalm 8.3-9

What is the passage essentially saying?  That both the small things and the big things demonstrate the majestic nature of God!  From our perspective in our smallness, it makes sense that God has larger more important things to think about in this universe that you or me.  But from God’s perspective he thinks the world of you!  Of course he loves the whole creation project, which fills us with awe and wonder.  Of course he is the one who holds it all together.  But within all of his activity throughout the endless reaches of outer space; he longs to know you and interact with you.  This mystery ought to make your head hurt.  [Read more...]

Filed Under: Devotional Contemplation, Evolution 11 Comments

The Creative Hands of God – Contemplating the Beauty of the Creator of the Cosmos

March 23, 2010 By Kurt Willems 2 Comments

I am not what anyone would consider a handyman.  Rarely have I crafted anything that was useful or pleasing to the eye.  In fact, if you put a hammer in my hand and ask me to pound a nail, most likely you will soon hear a squealing yell (and possibly some other words that ought never to graze the lips of a human being).  My hands have not been blessed with dexterity, but rather they are shaky and more likely to break something than to fix it.

I remember the TV show “Home Improvement” that stared Tim Allen during the nineties.  What was hilarious about this program was that Tim ‘the tool-man’ Taylor (as he was called) was constantly overestimating his abilities and often paid for it with a trip to the emergency room.  In fact, the nurses and doctors in the ER knew him on a first name basis!  The difference between me and ‘the tool-man’ is that I know that I am not too handy, whereas he continuously tried to prove just how skilled he was.

Now when it comes to my own attempts at handiwork, I do not remember having any major accomplishments.  The foremost piece of work that I have ever constructed took place at my grandparents’ home in the country when I was about ten years old.  As a child, I can remember a summer when I played with a younger cousin almost daily.  One day we decided that we wanted a fort, so we sought out materials and started to build.  This would be a place where young boys could pretend to be barbaric men.

The structure was built in such a way that the core wall was a wood fence that separated the main part of the property from the field.  Then, in order to create sturdy walls, we took three pallets and created a box like shape, leaving a small space open to serve as an entrance and exit.  The roof would end up being a piece of scrap metal that we found near a burn pile.  This was our fortress, and we had built it without any help from the adults.  What an accomplishment we had made; our fort was very good.  We spent the next couple of months penning an exclusive creed, and making sure that the younger kids in the family were afraid to intrude our fort.

Unfortunately, in the months that followed, the fortress became a breeding ground for black widow spiders and Dalmatian puppies.  If we did not fear entrance because of venom, we definitely found it inconvenient to maneuver around all of the dog poop.  The fortress that was meant for one purpose soon was being used for something totally different.  Our hands had built something great, but eventually, it all had come to nothing.

As we look around us, at the environment in which we live, it is amazing to ponder the hands that created it all.  The greatest of structures do not even compare to the monument of the natural world.  If you have never stopped and reflected on the hands that formed the world; next time you are at the beach, stand with your ankles immersed and look out into the horizon.  Or next time you are up in the mountains, find a lookout point early in the morning and observe the haze as it vaporizes and reveals a luscious green canyon filled with redwoods.  Maybe when you look through the glass that [Read more...]

Filed Under: Devotional Contemplation Tagged With: , , , , , , , 2 Comments
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