Gray-Haired Grump

Things I’ve Learned Thursday (TILT #019)

Sometimes we, as people, have this image of God that He is up in heaven watching every move we make; just waiting for us to mess up so He can punish us or wag His finger at us from the clouds. It can become easy to think of Him as a gray-haired grump in the sky. But, where does this image come from? Why do we see Him this way?

I think part of it comes from the fact that we can’t physically see Him in front of us, or touch Him like we would a friend, a child, a parent, or a spouse. We are told to believe that He is there, yet we can’t quite see Him with our eyes. I think another thing that may contribute to the “gray-haired grump” image is when we were first taught the ten commandments as children, maybe they seemed like a long list of things that will make God furious with us if we don’t obey them. Or, let me be honest here…maybe you’re like me and the first time you tried to read the book of Lamentations or the book of Judges, you started to fall asleep because, frankly, it seemed boring and dry.

These things can start to shape our image of God and form the way that we see Him. But, there is one really amazing, beautiful thing that God allows us to do that cuts through the gray-haired grump narrative. He allows us to interact with Him. Just like any relationship, our relationship with God consists of two-way interaction. Throughout the day, we can lean into Him with our prayers, even those little 30-second “microwave prayers” as we head into the big meeting at work, or walk into the blind date at the coffee shop. We can read the Bible, or we can just sit and think about Him.

And, being the loving God that He is, we find that He initiates contact with us at times too. You know those “God” moments; we’ve all had them; they are unmistakable. “God saw me today,” or “You won’t believe what happened today!”

And so, we practice these things. We practice seeing God and interacting with Him in the little things and, over time, over the years, it all starts to blend together into a beautiful relationship with God Himself. And before we know it, we are dancing with God. We find ourselves in a certain rhythm with Him whether we’re reading a book, eating, cooking, shopping, traveling, studying, exercising, creating art, driving, laughing, sleeping, and even when we’re mad at Him, doubting Him, or struggling with our faith. He is with us in those moments too.

And then, hopefully, at some point, we reach that level of maturity in our relationship with God, that we can come back and revisit Lamentations and Judges and start to look for the beauty in it, or the instruction in it; knowing that the words are not just from a gray-haired grump.

Don’t forget God today!

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