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artist, believe, challenge, God Box, God's Heart, God's will, know, Learn, The Artist, trsut, unexpected
John 7:45-52 (CEB)
45 The guards returned to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked, “Why didn’t you bring him (Jesus)?”
46 The guards answered, “No one has ever spoken the way he does.”
47 The Pharisees replied, “Have you too been deceived? 48 Have any of the leaders believed in him? Has any Pharisee? 49 No, only this crowd, which doesn’t know the Law. And they are under God’s curse!”
50 Nicodemus, who was one of them and had come to Jesus earlier, said, 51 “Our Law doesn’t judge someone without first hearing him and learning what he is doing, does it?”
52 They answered him, “You are not from Galilee too, are you? Look it up and you will see that the prophet doesn’t come from Galilee.”
One of the beautiful things about relationships is getting to know someone more and more. My wife and I have been married for over 16 years, dated for two years before that, and yet I am still learning about her and from her. I believe I know her very well, but she still surprises me.
Our relationship with God is similar. Every time we think we know, we’re sure we understand and have God figured out…Boom. God surprises us. Busting out of our limited and overly audacious God Box, God does something new and amazing. The Pharisees thought that they had God pretty much figured out. In their minds, Jesus couldn’t even be a prophet because he was from a backwoods town called Nazareth in Galilee. They were so sure, they didn’t even want to give him a chance. Nicodemus even encourages them to just listen to him.
When I see the trees changing colors, I am reminded that God is an artist, The Artist. What do artists do? They create. They make new. Why should we be surprised when God moves in unexpected ways? Because we want to understand God and fit The Lord of the Universe in my tiny little box that works for us. If God would stay in the box, our relationship would be safe. Boring, but safe. Our relationship with God is loving and secure, but it anything but comfortable. Jesus even warned his disciples it would take them place they didn’t want to go and cost them their lives. The promise though is a full life now and forever after with God.
That being said, I don’t want to believe in a God small enough to be contained in a box. I need God to be more powerful than death. I need a God who can’t be contained by cardboard, wood, or stone, or tomb.
Are you like the Pharisees? Do you have expectations of God, of what God will and won’t do? What if God doesn’t meet those expectations?
Prayer: Lord, surprise me in new and beautiful ways today. Reveal yourself, so that we may know you more. Amen.