Images of God to help us grow in faith.

My topic today will be images of God.  But first I need to clarify what I mean by images.  We need to remember that an image is not the real thing.  An image is a representation of a person, place or thing.  Let’s say that you are driving down the highway and you see a large truck in your rear-view mirror.  If you touch the mirror you are not touching the truck.  You are only touching an image of the truck.  The Bible contains many images of God but I want to look at only three: the Father, the Mother and the Creator. 

The Father image is found in the parable of the prodigal son.  The father of the prodigal son welcomed him back with open arms and a forgiving heart.  In much the same way, when we go astray God welcomes his back with open arms and a forgiving heart.  God is a forgiving father for us.

The Bible also contains feminine images of God.  God is pictured as a mother in the Book of Isaiah, Chapter 66.  “As a mother comforts her child, so will God comfort you.”  That motherly image reminds us that God is comforting and compassionate.  But a mother also challenges her children to become strong and independent.  The mother eagle pushes her child out of the nest and then catches it before it crashes to the earth.  The mother eagle does this over and over until the young one has flapped its wings and learned to fly.  This image of God is found in Deuteronomy Chapter 32.  “God is like a mother eagle that stirs up its nest and then hovers over its young and spreads its wings and catches them and carries them aloft.”

In much the same way, God challenges us to grow in faith and catches us if we falter.  God does this over and over until we become strong in faith.  The mother is challenging and so our loving God.  So often we say that God is loving and challenging and that is true.  But God is also our Creator.  And who can say that better than Saint Francis whose feast we celebrated yesterday.  When Francis saw a rainbow, he saw God who created the rainbow.  Francis could see through the rainbow and see the God who made the rainbow.  His image for God was the Creator.  He felt close to flowers and birds and dogs and cats and wolves and crows and doves and other animals.  He said, “God created them; therefore, I should love them.”  He saw the Creator creating each animal.  He saw and believed the first sentence in the Bible: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

Many saints have spoken about the sinfulness of creation but Saint Francis spoke about the goodness of creation.  God created the world in six days and at the end of each day God looked at each item and said, “This is good!”  Our psalm for today’s Mass had an interesting message about a rock, which is another product of creation.  The psalm says that a rock is solid and it is another image of God because God is solid.  God is solid in his commitments and solid in his loyalty to us.  So, a rock is another image for God.

Speaking of rocks, I have some in my office.  They were given to me by my Native American friends.  They have given me feathers and tobacco as well.  They believe that the Creator is providing us with many objects to remind us of his existence.

Jesus used an object of God’s creation in today’s Gospel.  He spoke about the mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds.  It starts out small but grows into a large bush.  His disciples were saying to him, “We can’t follow you any more because our faith is too small.”   Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t worry about it.  God will help your faith to grow just as God helps the mustard seed to grow.  You are not alone in this world; God will help your faith to grow.”  

I will close with these thoughts.  There are many images of God that we can use to help us grow in faith.  The image of a Father, the image of a Mother and the image of the Creator.  Please use all three to help yourself grow in faith.  Please rotate from one to another to help yourself grow in faith.