I said yesterday that we think in images, and that without an image we cannot think. Based on my own experience, it seems that one of the difficulties that we have today in relating to God is our lack of poetic images. More and more, our educational system eliminates art, poetry, and classical literature --- all rich sources of the kind of imagery that fuels the imagination.
When C.S. Lewis wrote The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, he cautioned parents not to explain the imagery to their children. The images needed to stand on their own until the time that the children themselves began to grow into their meanings. Once they had encountered Jesus as active in their own lives, they could then relate to the lion, the witch, and the winter of sin.
One of the greatest benefits for me in having learned biblical imagery is the way it has influenced my prayer and my relationship to God. If our only image of God is that of some Great Power in the sky, our prayer and our relationship will be poor indeed. That is the principal reason for the Incarnation of Jesus as the Son of God in our midst --- to change and to define our image of Who God Is!
Reading the Psalms can resurface the entire playing field of the way we relate to God. From some Great Power in the sky, He becomes my Comfort, my Shield, my Stronghold, and the "Lifter of my head."
All who take refuge in you shall be glad, and ever cry out their joy.
You shelter them; in you they rejoice, those who love your name.
It is you who bless the righteous, O Lord,
You surround them with your favor like a shield. ....(Ps. 5)
The children of men seek shelter in the shadow of your wings. (Ps.36)
In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is the Comforter, the Advocate, the Counselor, the Dove, the Water springing up to eternal life.
How rich our spiritual lives are with all these images.... and how poor without them!
No comments:
Post a Comment